Bosnian soccer match

That's me under the VFC flag on the right side.  Made it to TV!

Marching through Mostar getting ready to board the bus

Cheering louder than everyone else.  Not a packed house though

The police waiting for us outside the bus

When some of the locals I'd made friends with in Mostar told me there was a soccer match that evening, I was in.  Can't pass up the opportunity to see a live sporting event in any country, especially a soccer match, the world sport. It would be an away match and there was a bus for the rowdy Mostar Army supporters to take us to the other city.

We met up with other supporters at the Red Army meeting spot. Murals, flags, photos, history was all there in pretty much the headquarters of the Red Army supporters.  Loads of people were showing up, singing Army songs and getting pumped for the game.  The players are from the local area, so we went to cheer them on as they got on their bus for the game.  Then, with flags waving and flares blazing, we marched through the city letting everyone know that the team was number one.  Little rowdy, but no problems, and the police were waiting for us at the bus, standard protocol.  Nice police here in Mostar, as one riot officer chatted with us, showing us pictures of his bicycles and telling us the next 2 days he was riding 300km.

The city of Mostar was divided during the war on the west and east, and there are still divisions with 2 soccer clubs, 2 post offices, religion on separate sides and still some conflict.  As we drove through the west side, there was lots of jeering and shouting at the people outside, showing a strong disliking for the people in west Mostar.  It may be over 15 years since the war, but the feelings sadly haven't changed as much.

Our police escort vans left us with new riot police who weren't the nicest and gave full pat-downs and were pretty strict with letting us into the stadium.  Inside, we were in a cage on one side of the field, away from the rest of the spectators.  Apparently there is strong feelings against the other side and there have been major problems in the past between the the supporters of the two clubs. And also trouble with police as I learned of a fan being shot by police 3 years ago.

The cheering and singing was awesome on our side.  Very loud and excited for most of the match.  Of course when the team got down 3-0, the voices weren't as loud.  Fun to cheer on the Army, although I couldn't join in too much with the words.  And a lot of what they were saying to the other fans wasn't that nice anyway.  Crazy times out there.

Leaving by bus, we had more police escorts and took a backroads, dirt road back to Mostar, to avoid any trouble with people waiting for us along the way.  No problems.