FK Sarajevo: Olympic dreams, football realities

Words: Dave Harry

Images: Dave Harry

The 1984 Winter Olympics still dominate the Sarajevo skyline. With good reason. The Summer Olympics of 1980 and 1984 were heavily boycotted due to the cold war, but the Sarajevo Winter games were attended by all.

Tito, the then Yugoslav President, was a master at playing the West and East off each other and retained pragmatic relations with both sides. Alhough you can still find some references to Tito in some bars and in museums, the Olympic sights and signs are much more visible.

The Skenderija II Hall that hosted the ice hockey still stands, as does the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic villages, whilst the abandoned sites of the former ski jump, bobsleigh and Hotel Igman provide some faded glamour; the Olympics were 40 years ago after all and if its athletes can’t avoid the ageing process, then why should the architecture?

As you walk up Alipašina to the Olympic Stadium it’s the Olympic Tower that first draws you in, then you make-out the rebuilt Zetra hall where Torvill and Dean wowed with their Bolero and then, just then, you see the floodlights standing tall, proud and lighting up one of the most iconic stadiums of all.

FK Sarajevo are its current tenants and despite club sponsor Turkish Airlines advertising dominating the Olympic torch pedestal, its still fully visible and there are plenty of nods to its past in sight, albeit the modernised scoreboard feels a little out of place when compared to its 80s digital predecessor.

The ground sits deep in the hills and its acoustics amplifies the crowds chants so they sound magnificent and larger than the sum of their parts. The hosts race into a 3-1 half-time lead and the home fans bounce and sing and celebrate as perhaps gold medallists once did.

The visitors FK Igman pull one back in the second-half but FK Sarajevo see it out effortlessly and at full-time, the players are invited into join their ultras to celebrate.

It’s quite a sight watching the ultras make space in this arena of Olympic dreams and football realities.