Political football

A proposal by Croatia coach Igor Stimac that acquitted generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac perform an honorary kick-off at the start of a World Cup qualifier between the two nations on March 22 in Zagreb has been greeted with fury by Serbian officials.

Short of the Pope kicking off an Old Firm game, it’s difficult to imagine a more incendiary gesture to mark the start of a football game.

Serbia coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, a Serb born in Croatia, said Monday his team would boycott the match if the two are allowed on the field.

”I believe that neither FIFA nor UEFA will allow that they take the starting kick-off,” Mihajlovic said. ”However, if that happens, we won’t play the match. That’s the only way they can defeat us.”

On Friday, the two generals were freed by the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of charges of being responsible for war crimes against Serbs during a 1995 Croatian military offensive that resulted in hundreds of dead and hundreds of thousands expelled.

The decision to release the two – hailed in Croatia and denounced in Serbia – further strained relations between nations that fought a war in the 1990s.

Croatian football federation President Davor Suker, a former team-mate of Stimac, said the coach ”needs a spanking” for the proposal.

”We have to lessen the tensions and that’s how we have to behave,” Suker said. ”We have to show that we are a civilized state. We have to show respect toward Serbia.”

With diplomatic skills like that it’s a wonder that Stimac hasn’t been consulted for his thoughts on the current crisis in Gaza.