Upon initiative of the Balkan Alpe Adria Project (BAAP) FK Slavija Sarajevo from Bosnia-Herzegovina and FC Hapoel Ra’anana from Israel held a friendly match as part of their training camps in Austria. BAAP convinced both club to perform a joint action against anti-Semitism and racism before kick-off, as a reaction to the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incident at the Euro 2016 qualifier between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel in Zenica in June.
FK Slavija is a long-term partner from BAAP, where until just a few years ago only Serbian footballers were engaged by the club. As a result of the cooperation with BAAP and the participation in activities in the framework of the project “Football Unites” the club’s policy changed, and now players from all Bosnian ethnic groups are part of the team. The referees joined the action spontaneously.
FC Hapoel Ra’anana was founded in 1952, but was promoted only three years ago to the Premier League in Israel. The club supports the NGO Beit Issie Shapiro that develops therapies for children with disabilities and promotes their inclusion into society.
Itay Alon, CEO of FC Hapoel Ra’anana, said before the match: „Besides our cooperation with the NGO Beit Issie Shapiro with whom we are working together in the field of social inclusion we are doing activities to foster the mutual respect between the Jewish and the Arab population. Our team consists of Jewish, Muslim and Christian players – that makes no difference for us. Therefore it was clear for us to join this great action and to make a clear statement against nationalism and anti-Semitism.“
Milan Gutovic, coach of FK Slavija Sarajevo, added: “As coach and former player from Zeljeznicar I firmly condemn the incidents at the last match if the national team against Israel. Such behaviour of some “fans” has nothing to do with a sports competition. Football is such a beautiful game that shall be celebrated and supported and not to cause scandals and bad moments. I strongly support the activities from BAAP in the framework of our training camps with Slavija here in Austria. The showing if red cards with slogans and presenting banners before kick-off are a nice gesture and impart an important message.”
FK Slavija Sarajevo carried out actions against racism and nationalism in the framework of their training camp also at their matches against SC Ritzing (Austria) and Anzhi Makhachkala (Russia).