Interview with a representative BHFanaticos (Bosnia and Herzegovina national team).

1) Hello! Please introduce yourself to our readers as much as possible. How old have you been to actively support the Bosnia national team?
- Hello, we are BHFanaticos, we have been following the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 21 years.

2) Do you remember your first away game and your first clashes on football? By “clashes” we mean the first time you had to use force to attack or defend in or around a stadium. How often does violence occur in Bosnia's matches?
- There were many small incidents, but the worst was at "Marakana" in Belgrade, when they brought in a lot of stones and tried to break through to the stands without success. Made less contact, they mostly shot in a dirty way. Couple of their guys that were brave enoguh to come closer, will remember that match and beating they received 🙂

3) Tell us about your band. Who and when was it founded, how many people are there now and what is their average age? Why did you decide to actively support the national team, not just the club?
- Our group was founded on December 20, 2000. by 5-6 people who mostly didn't even know each other. It was decided to form an organization based on trust, which will support the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We follow the clubs as individuals, and under the auspices of the BHF we are united.

4) Which Bosnian club fans support the national team? Or did you choose only the support for the national team? How are things going with this? To be in the group BHFanaticos do you have to be a fan of some club, or is it not necessary?
- Every group that considers this country their own supports the national team in some way. The BHF is the organization that officially describes it. You don't have to belong to a club group, because we are a group ourselves, but there are a lot of guys who live that Ultras style.

5) Are there fan organizations that don’t support the national team in principle? For example, we remember how on the day of the penultimate round match between your and the Finnish national teams, at almost the same time, fans of Zrinjski and Velež fought in Mostar. That is, we understand that these people, the national team, are not particularly interested, since they preferred a showdown at the local level to an important international match. Why is this happening?
- It is a very complicated situation. Velež (Red Army) fans are patriots and they are here for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fans of their city rival, Zrinjski, are more inclined towards some aggressor policies and desires for secession. Before the war and aggression, they were all Velež fans. The battle that day was over graffiti. Group of guys from Red Army, were that they with us in Zenica

6) Also interested in how people who sympathize with “Sarajevo” and “Željezničar” coexist during the matches of the national team in the sector? This derby is known all over the world, and it is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think about your scene. Perhaps there are some other important internal confrontations that we do not know about?
- They are rivals in club matches, when the national team plays, we are one team. There is a fair atmosphere between us.

7) Do the fans of the Bosnian national team have friends or just such countries with which you have developed good relations? For example, fans from Ukraine have developed very good relations with Croats, Belarusians, Lithuanians. That is, if we are talking about matches at the national team level. How are you doing with this?
- In some countries we are greeted very correctly by different hosts, but we do not have any greater friendship with anyone.

8) And, in general, if we talk about the friendly relations of fans of Bosnian clubs with foreign movements. Everyone knows about the friendship between “Sarajevo” and “Dynamo” (Dresden). Are there other examples similar to this in your country?
- We don't know any currently "active".

9) How is Bosnia doing with the harassment of fans by the authorities and the police? What are the penalties for those who are arrested in football or during a fight on match day?
- It depends on whether it is a milder or more serious offense, a fight, pyrotechnics. From 50 euros to 1000 and over most often.

10) What about deaths in football? About football in the Balkans is considered one of the toughest in Europe. How often have there been fatalities during fan clashes with each other or with the police in your country?
- As for death, the biggest stain on the scene is the murder of one Sarajevo fan, Vedran Puljic. Vedran was killed a long time ago by the police in Široki Brijeg, and no one has yet been officially prosecuted in prison because the procedure has never been completed. Also one member of Manijaci was killed by police in 2005.

11) And, of course, we cannot ignore the topic of the war in your region. The Bosnian War is one of the bloodiest chapters in European history in recent decades. What do the events of 1992/95 mean personally to you? How do the citizens of your country view these events, almost 30 years after they started?
- The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more precisely the armed aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, left great consequences that are still felt today. There is still talk about it, human remains are being sought, hatred exists. We will never stop striving for truth and justice.

12) It is clear that the rest of the world sees the events of those years, so to speak, in a common complex. We know the most important information, the most important battles, the number of victims and the names of the newly formed states, but how does the process of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia see through the eyes of a resident of Bosnia? Could, in your opinion, then everything has gone differently, or was the war inevitable?
- The break-up of Yugoslavia was inevitable because some peoples wanted power over Bosnia for many years. The war was inevitable because, for the most part, Serbia's plan was to take over the Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina by force.

13) Bosnian society, what is it like today? When we say "society" we mean the political and religious views of people. We know that not all citizens of your country are ethnic Bosnians. Croats and Serbs live in large numbers, who do not identify themselves as Bosnians. We know that there are even teams that support only one ethnic group or another. How does this affect the life of the entire Bosnian society in general?
- A series of divisions made a mess on many fronts. Various religions have lived in BiH for centuries. Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox at most. By interfering with politics throughout history, some of them have decided to strive more for states with which they have no connection, and this goes to such an extreme that they do not recognize the one in which they were born. There are also many non-Muslims who identify as Bosniaks and accept their home country as the only one. For the latter, it is their problem and let it eat them away forever.

14) Religion is a separate and rather large topic, and therefore we suggest discussing it as a separate issue. We know that religious views in your country are not uniform. Many of the country's citizens are moderate Muslims, but there are also a large number of Orthodox and Catholics. How does this affect everyday life and relationships between people? Can we say that people in Bosnia are very religious and the issue of the church occupies an important place in your life? How is the issue of religion reflected in football sympathies? Are there conflicts if one club is supported by two groups of fans of different religious views?
- Religion is not a problem as much as ethnic divisions. There is a place in Bosnia for all the people who love it. One of our greats once said: "In Bosnia, the church bell never bothered the muezzin's voice".

15) Considering everything that we know about your country, the next question is not completely clear. Who can qualify as a “Bosnian nationalist”? Is there a clear framework of ideological views that such a person should have? What views are these? Or does this concept vary depending on the region of the country and the group (clan) to which the person relates himself?
- There are different definitions of term NATIONALIST. So it is hard to give you answer on this question.

16) The Balkan mafia in Europe. In the 1990s, mafia groups from the former Yugoslavia ruled the continent almost completely in terms of violations of the law, financial fraud and arms trafficking. Not the last place in this process was occupied by the Bosnian mafiosi. What do you think was the main factor behind this phenomenon?
- The struggle for life through the centuries, various attacks, sufferings, wars have created a little "fiercer" types. It's the same today, only better packaged.

17) If we talk about the intersection of the topic of crime and fanaticism, then in different countries this happens in different ways. Let's not pretend now that all the fans work in the office or as school teachers. Drug trafficking, racketeering, security firms, kidnapping. If we talk about the fan scene in Bosnia, how much do you think it is intertwined with the crime in your country today? Of course, he is primarily interested in club football and hooligan firms.
- Well, there are certainly such cases, but really a very negligible number if we compare it with some other fan scenes.

18) Since you support the Bosnia national team not only in football, but also in other sports, we would like to ask about the specifics of such support. What is the difference between trips, for example, for a basketball or handball team from football teams? Perhaps there were some unique interesting stories happened to you that you could tell our readers? Have there been any big fights with other fans or confrontations with the police in your memory, besides football matches?
- Every game is approached in an organized and serious way, no matter what sport it is. The biggest fuss was perhaps in Jesenice at Eurobasket when our team took away a small flag from Serbian fans.

19) A question that most of our readers from Ukraine are probably interested in. How do you explain what happened between the two sectors before the start of the recent match in Zenica? Do you really think that Ukrainians are raising the Serbian flag on their football stands, or did it all start for another reason?
- Well, look, you know how little it takes in the stands to bring tension. At first, due to poor visibility, it seemed to be the flag, but it was quickly established that it was not. However, a couple of individuals from the guest sector responded arrogantly and there is a "burning" atmosphere. All in all, one mistake.

20) Why didn't you try to attack the Ukrainian fans after the game? Or have you tried, but we just don't know about it?
- Through what we’ve seen, most of them were “ordinary” fans with no ultras direction, and we don’t attack those people. The more dangerous ones hid better: D

21) How would you rate the performance of the Bosnia national team in the qualifying group and the whole group as a whole? It seems that this was a very equal group in which all five teams fought well. In your opinion, what did your national team lack to reach the playoffs?
- The change of generations, bad work in the football association are the main causes of this. We deserved absolutely no further placement.

22) Let's imagine that the Bosnia national team made it to the 2022 World Cup. How many people from your fan football stand afford to travel to Qatar?
- Wherever we played, there were a number of our people. It is far away, but it is certain that many Bosnians would have gone there if we had qualified.

23) Above all, we are interested in your current political situation. International news often talks about a possible aggravation of relations between regions of your country. In early November, Christian Schmidt, High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, admitted that a repetition of a situation similar to the military events of the 90s is quite possible. What assessment can you give to these words? How serious is the real possibility of a new military conflict?
- We will answer briefly, this is a crazy Balkans and anything is always possible. But we will always be there for our homeland!

24) Can the Serbian separatists gather such an efficient army to try to secede by force? We understand that Russia is structurally influencing the Republic of Serbia, which is pushing this region into unrest and possible secession, followed by annexation to Serbia. At the same time, the United States and the European Union are in favor of a single country. But, if you take exactly the army of the Republic of Serbia, how many of its strength? What percentage of people might really want to secede and destroy your country in this way?
- Anyone who is obsessed with aggressor ideology would certainly be on that side, but that is nothing that we have not already encountered and do not encounter in various ways.

25) What, in your opinion, could be the outcome of the war with Serbian separatists in today's conditions? Now you can often hear that a kind of Cold War continues in the world today. As in those days, large and powerful countries pursue their interests in various zones around the world, where their political and economic interests are affected. In this regard, Bosnia and Ukraine are somewhat similar. And the question is, will the US and the European Union offer your assistance quickly enough if Serbian-Russian-funded forces begin to split Bosnia from within?
- Europe has betrayed us many times, so in the last war. What we know, and we can tell you - you are your own best friends!

26) Thanks for your time! What would you like to wish our readers from Ukraine?
- Similar stories are the link between our two countries. We don’t have to be friends, but we need to respect each other. Long live Bosnia, long live Ukraine, best regards!