Vahid Halilhodzic, Bosnian football manager and former player, spoke to N1 in an exclusive interview and unveiled the details of termination of the contract with the national team of Morocco, which he took to the latest World Cup in Qatar but was fired just before the event.

Halilhodzic, also known as Vaha is one of the most successful football managers of Bosnian origin. He secured the spot in the World Cup with four national teams so far but managed to stay with only one of them. They all had something in common, according to him, and it also happened with Moroccan team.

“That's the type of the work that lasts for years, and every time it happens that someone takes over from what I created. I'll tell you what happened. I didn't want to accept that football association chiefs tell me 15 days before the Cup which players will play and which ones won't,” said Halilhodzic, speaking about his engagement with Morocco for the first time after leaving the job.

“Sponsors wanted to be the ones to decide, politicians as well. They couldn't make influence on me. I have always been of a stance that I'm the one to choose together with my staff, because we are the ones who made success and I was against it that someone else makes decision. However, they are the ones deciding on me, they are the patrons, you're a small fish, they only remove you. OK, they also pay you for that, but playing in a World Cup? There is no money that can pay that back,” he noted.

Halilhodzic, who took Ivory Coast, Japan, Morocco and Algeria to the World Cup as a head coach, but was sacked by the first three teams just prior to the event, said it was hard to accept something like that after putting so much effort in one such project.

“That is a cycle that lasts for four years but someone takes that from you,” he stressed, adding thta it all left consequences on him and even caused trauma.

Speaking to N1, he also emphasised his popularity around the world.

“Billions are watching World Cup games. Today when I travel to Africa, Asia, or Europe, people recognise me. Can you imagine how would that be if I had gone to those three World Cups? No head coach managed to take four teams there and then miss it three times. That is a trauma that is hard to swallow and accept. Even as I player I experienced the same. I wanted to become the best goalscorer of the World Cup, to get a true affirmation, but it never happened. So, I have some traumas that hurt, but life goes on. For now I'm healthy, but everything that has been happening in my life and my career probably affected my health too,” said the head coach.

After he left Morocco he spoke to no one there:

“Some players tried to contact me, because they couldn't speak in media, to give statements. It is all about politics. That's how it works. There are some of my former players in other countries who are still communicating with me, but I refused to talk to anyone in Morocco.”

As for principles, Halilhodzic noted, sometimes it is easier to bypass them but that's not what he does.

“When you're a coach in a club or a national team, you need to do everything you believe is good, so that you don't regret it later on. (…) I don't regret anything I did. They (in Morocco) were not happy with that, they were way too happy with the results. I thought that credibility of a coach is mostly built through results, but today you need to engage in politics too. For me, the sport aspect still matters the most,” he underlined.

Halilhodzic was fired after he removed Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui from the team and refused to take them to the World Cup in Qatar. He said he would never forgive himself if he succumbed to the pressure of football association, sponsors and politicians in Morocco.

“Could you imagine if I left out a player with whom I qualified for the World Cup and took the one who was creating problems to me all the time? When I was making the decision I asked myself how would I feel? (…) This is not a matter of sports. This is a matter of pride. That would be bothering me. I know how I felt when they did me wrong in the national team of the former country, how hard it was for me to accept it. I knew I was better than everyone else, but some others played. It was hard to accept that,” Halilhodzic recalled.

He stressed that he followed the same principle as coach.

“I always have some twenty players. Half of them who play and other half who hate you because they don't. That's how it is everywhere. But the most correct thing to do is to be yourself, so when you look at the mirror you can say you did everything for the right reasons, and not because you hate someone, you dislike someone or don't appreciate someone. That is only a choice of sports. Job of a coach is not only to do training. It is a pedagogical, psychological work that is done on daily basis with some thirty players plus the staff, a total of some 50 people. Every day you're having an exam and everyone is watching you,” he added.