Bosnian football club reports provocation targeting youth team with Ratko Mladic stickers

Sports in Bosnia and Herzegovina are often intertwined with politics, as well as the glorification of figures and actions that are legally and socially unacceptable.

According to the club, stickers of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, alongside offensive messages such as “F** a city without three concentration camps,” were placed on the team bus carrying Radnicki’s junior and cadet squads.

“This is how our juniors and cadets were seen off in Zvornik after today’s league match against Drina. We strongly condemn this cheap attempt at provocation by the hosts, and no further comment is needed,” Radnicki stated.

What was Ratko Mladic convicted of?

In 2017, Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, as well as persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against non-Serb populations across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mladic was also convicted for terrorising civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and for taking UNPROFOR peacekeepers hostage. The verdict was upheld on appeal in 2021, making the judgment final.