Each and every summer brings a flurry of troublesome stories relating to how various clubs across the region are facing insolvency and relegation to the lower tiers of the footballing ladder due to the financial predicaments that they find themselves mired within. Clubs from Russia to Poland have found themselves threatened with the prospect of not being granted a domestic, or European, license for the coming season, which could have disastrous consequences for the future of the game.

The perception of wealth that the likes of Anzhi Makhachkala, Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit St Petersburg have spread across European football has inevitably led to a significant proportion of people falling into the trap of believing that Russian and Ukrainian football presently stands in good health. In fact, this could not be further from the truth. The precipice is mere metres away, and a number of clubs are staring into the black pit of destruction below.

Polonia Warszawa are this summer’s finest example of just how perilous life can be as a football club lacking the perceived prestige of some of their peers in the same division. The, now former, Ekstraklasa club finished last season in 6^th place of Poland’s top flight and one could easily have been forgiven for believing that such a position in the league table could inspire confidence of a future brightened by the tangibility of possibly qualifying for European competition. However, upon the season’s conclusion, concerns were once again raised as to the state of the club’s financial situation – and as such Polonia were refused an Ekstraklasa license for the following season. This heavy handed action by the PZPN, the Polish FA, was followed by the demotion of the club to the fifth tier of domestic football in Poland, and virtual extinction.

This is a club who can boast to be the oldest in the Polish capital, having been established in 1911, and who won their second league title at the turn of the Millennium. The club’s demise has caused ripples of nervousness across Poland, as Pololnia’s financial instability can be traced far and wide across the Ekstraklasa with various clubs potentially capable of slipping into a similar position in the relatively near future.

In a similar vein to Polonia’s demise, a number of Ukrainian clubs are looking increasingly likely to be demoted from the Premier League due to their economic instability. The growing speculation that both Hoverla and Metalurh Zaporizhya, the two clubs who finished in the league’s relegation places, may retain their top flight status have proved watertight with the confirmation that both clubs have been granted Premier League licenses for next term. Such a situation has occurred due to the fact that there are clubs, who finished above them, who are struggling to convince the relevant authorities that they are deserving of maintaining their domestic license.

Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih have been in such dire straits over the past few months that the club were unable to afford to pump hot water to their training ground’s showers, while players were also forced to pay for their own travel and accommodation expenses on away trips. This has been accompanied by the fact that certain members of the playing and coaching staff are still owed wages, in what has become a particularly vicious cycle. Despite finishing in an impressive 7^th place, it seems inevitable that Kryvbas will be forced to ply their trade in the second tier of Ukrainian football next season, and will require a great deal of restructuring if they are to maintain their position in that division and prevent a horrifying spiral into extinction.

The problem within Ukraine has been that there aren’t any clubs in the First Division capable of meeting the necessary financial and infrastructural criteria to compete in the nation’s top flight. Had both Hoverla and Metalurh Z been relegated, as their league position would suggest they should have been, then there was a hope that Stal Alchevsk and Oleksandria could have stepped up and found themselves competing against the likes of Shakhtar and Dynamo Kyiv next season. However, neither club viewed themselves as being capable of moving up a tier due to their, you guessed it, financial and infrastructural situation.

A short hop over to the Balkan states, sees Serbian football in an equally atrocious state where perennial league champions Partizan were initially the only club to meet the financial criteria to be deemed eligible to be granted a domestic license to compete in the Superliga. Crvena Zvezda, Jagodina and Vojvodina, the clubs who finished directly below Partizan, have since been guaranteed their status in the top flight however there remain question marks surrounding a number of clubs below them. Partizan’s monopoly on Serbia’s sole Champions League spot has created a significant disparity between themselves and each of the other clubs in the Superliga, and despite Crvena Zvezda’s valiant pursuit last season, such a situation appears unlikely to be altered any time soon.

The issue with licenses is one that is not just applicable to one or two countries in Central and Eastern Europe, with the likes of Rubin Kazan and a number of clubs from the Romanian capital of București finding themselves in the position where their top flight status is far from assured. This is an annual event that seems impossible to prevent given the struggles that many clubs face in generating sufficient revenue, through sponsorships and television, to match their expenses and ambition. It is unsurprising that there have been such vocal calls for the development of league structures combining multiple nations across the region, due to the money spinning potential that such advances could reap. However, for now, the paupers of Central and Eastern European football will continue to live in hope that there are clubs in a worse state than themselves.

‘The best person is Nemanja Matic, he has been outstanding. He has come on leaps and bounds and we have all been thrilled with how he has done and long may that continue. His application when he has been with the reserves, his dedication and training with the reserves has been outstanding and we have a first class professional on our books.’ 

Ray Wilkins, December 12 2009

Among the countless South Americans that made up over half of Benfica’s squad facing Chelsea in the Europa League final last month was an odd-sounding, tall-standing midfielder whose name, albeit difficult to pronounce, certainly rung a bell in and around the Cobham training centre.

Nemanja Matic, 24, roamed his lanky silhouette around that training centre daily for exactly a year, from August 18, 2009 to August 23, 2010. Every day during that year, no other senior Chelsea player managed to arrive earlier than him to training, such was the dedication which eventually led Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant coach Ray Wilkins to praise his commitment midway through the Serb’s short stay in London.

He had been noticed by Carlo Ancelotti during Serbia Under-21′s 0-0 draw against Italy in the 2009  Under-21 European Championships, where the midfielder’s elegance with the ball in spite of an unusually tall height (194cm) was only matched by his persistence to perform until the 85th minute of a game where he broke his metatarsal early in the second half. The subsequent injury saw him sidelined for five months, yet just three weeks after this commanding display Ancelotti had opened negotiations with Slovakian outfit Kosice to bring the midfielder to Chelsea.

The swift transition from a club who gained promotion to the Slovakian top flight just four years earlier to the richest club in England was hardly the first watershed in Nemanja Matic’s hitherto bumpy career. Enrolled by the prestigious Red Star Belgrade academy at the age of 12, the midfielder was deemed surplus to requirements four years later and offloaded in 2004. Aged 16, he then had a trial at arch-rivals’ Partizan, an unusual move which also ended in disappointment as the midfielder’s unhurried elegance on the ball was seen as unfit for the game’s modern standards.

He was eventually signed by FK Kolubara, in the Serbian third tier, where he made his debut the same year and compiled 16 appearances in the Serbian League Belgrade, a division consisting only of clubs of the Serbian capital’s suburbs.

His performances were noticed by MFK Kosice, a club best known for becoming the first Slovakian outfit to reach the Champions’ League group stages in 1997-1998, where they twice lost to Manchester United with a 0-3 scoreline. In a steady state of decay ever since, Kosice almost filed for bankruptcy in 2004 before being saved by the local administrations looking to maintain a football club alive in Slovakia’s second biggest city.

With their minimal financial means, Kosice were reduced to scouting lower Eastern European leagues which is where they would find Nemanja Matic (and nowadays his younger brother Uros, born in 1990, an attacking midfielder on his way to a 100th appearance for the club) in 2007.

This is when the tall midfielder started showing his potential, compiling 67 appearances and helping Kosice reach a historical fourth spot in 2008-2009. After gaining Slovakian citizenship, which meant he would not need a work permit to play in England, Matic was called up for a trial at Middlesbrough which was proving conclusive until he cut it short after being included in Serbia’s Under-21 squad to face Denmark on October 11, 2008 – his debut for the national youth team.

During that time and barely aged 20, he proposed to his childhood sweetheart Aleksandra with whom he now has a child named Filip, both names written proudly on the shin pads he now wears at Benfica.

The next summer, an impressive outing against Italy with the same team was enough to persuade Carlo Ancelotti to fork out £1,2m for the young midfielder who was included in Chelsea’s League Cup squad against QPR on September 21, 2009 where he was introduced to the Stamford Bridge crowd before kick-off, although not taking part in the game itself. Confident in his abilities, he talked of his desire to become a regular with the Blues within a season and Europe’s best holding midfielder within three.

He compiled a number of appearances for the Blues’ reserves outfit, kept from entering the first team by the likes of Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel and Michael Ballack. It was only two months later on November 21 that he finally got to sniff the Stamford Bridge grass coming on as a substitute for Florent Malouda in the second half of a game against Wolverhampton which the Blues comfortably led 4-0.

Despite a remarkable commitment at training and with the reserves, he failed to play a further part in the team’s Premier League crowning that season, merely making another appearance in the last game of the season. Named on Chelsea’s bench for the FA Cup final against Portsmouth weeks later, he was once more ignored by Ancelotti despite Ballack’s injury late in the first half, with the Italian coach deciding to send full-back Juliano Belletti on the field rather than the more aptly positioned Serbian. Ten minutes into the second half, Belletti would concede a penalty after a rough challenge on Kevin-Prince Boateng which might have shifted the course of the final and Chelsea’s eventual double, had the Ghanaian been more accurate from the penalty spot.

Although he collected just two substitute appearances, Matic found his name in Serbia’s extended 2010 World Cup list, a tell-tale that his dedication had not gone unnoticed by Radomir Antic’s staff. He still did not make the final cut and was eventually sent on loan by Chelsea to Eredivise side Vitesse Arnhem in the summer of 2010, in the company of two other CFC hopefuls Slobodan Rajkovic and Matej Delac. A string of first team appearances failed to spike his desire as his commitment reportedly ebbed, several belated arrivals at training being registered in his time there. The disappointment of not getting a chance in Chelsea’s main squad was perceivable, as was the unsettling environment of a football career taking a 20-something man from one country to another with no clear objective in sight.

Making his way back to Chelsea in early 2011, he was once more offloaded, this time to Benfica as part of the €25m deal which brought David Luiz to England. Starting off as a substitute, this time second best to Axel Witsel and Javi Garcia, he patiently worked his way up and eventually got the big call when the Belgian was sold to Zenit and the Spaniard to Manchester City in the summer of 2012.

At last an undisputed member of Benfica’s first eleven, he regained confidence in his game and accuracy in his passing through a string of first team appearances, eventually prompting Newcastle manager Alan Pardew to single him out after his side’s Europa League quarter-final defeat to the Lisbon side last month, acknowledging ‘the way he has grown since going away from Chelsea’.

A wondergoal against arch-rivals Porto proved the final brush in establishing his status at Benfica, where he is now the main fulcrum that Mourinho reportedly seeks to bring back to Stamford Bridge as he prepares his own come-back to the London club. This time to leave a mark in English football.

Guus Hiddink’s appointment as Anzhi head coach in the February of 2012 was the issuing of a statement that trickled across Europe like ancient plague. Despite a relatively unsuccessful spell with the Turkish national team, the memories of the Dutchman leading a hugely exciting Russian side to the semi-finals of the European Championships, followed by an FA Cup winning spell with Chelsea, continued to linger in the memory. Anzhi meant business and intended to use an impending spell of success as a springboard to eradicate the term ‘project’ from the lips of their gathering naysayers.

Yet some eighteen months later Guus Hiddink is set to leave Makhachkala under a wave of negativity, following a season that had looked once so promising prior to the winter break. Anzhi’s failure to keep pace with eventual league winners CSKA Moscow, and even silver medallists Zenit St Petersburg, prompted the club’s supporters to become increasingly vocal in the their discontent against the workings of a once adored coach, with ever maddening banners appearing across the club’s newly renovated Anzhi Arena.

Hiddink’s inability to publicly explain the misfiring mechanics of his team left many wondering as to whether the 66 year old actually gave two hoots about the direction in which the club was beginning to head. An air of apathy began to emanate from the dugout, a scent that was shoved down the noses of those who followed the club even prior to Kerimov’s cheque book making Anzhi the envy of Europe.

The Dutchman was backed financially in the transfer market, with Willian’s shock transfer from Shakhtar Donetsk this winter for €35m a perfect example, and yet the team struggled to sufficiently make use of the strength of talent that they possessed. The process of building a team within a club lacking any form of history of success can be a difficult process for even the most experienced of coaches, yet fairly basic inadequacies have reared their head on an all too consistent basis since the frozen Russian turf began to thaw once again in March.

With Hiddink’s exit imminent, attention will now turn to the next man entrusted with spending Kerimov’s billions and leading Anzhi to domestic and European success. Various names have been reported in the media; ranging from Roberto Mancini to Mircea Lucescu, and yet a solid bet for the post does not yet exist. The financial backing that the club’s incoming coach will receive will be attempted to be spent on established European talent who, it will be hoped, will force through a period of stability and success. Yet wider problems exist for a club who sit in a hugely controversial region of Europe.

The recent bombings at the Boston marathon have once again brought the region of Dagestan to the fore of the world’s consciousness, and all for the wrong reasons. It is difficult to imagine the club being able to entice European talent into playing football in a place so intent on violence and bloodshed. What was previously a difficult situation – in spite of the club’s players living in Moscow – has only been made worse by recent events and you would imagine that not even a bumper pay cheque will convince some players to make the move.

Few clubs in European football can claim to exist within such an extreme social and political climate, so much so that it is difficult to see how an outsider to the current situation could sign a contract and thrive under the strain. Anzhi have already attempted to move forward with a Russian coach upon the appointment of Yuri Krasnozhan, prior to Hiddink’s appointment, yet the current Terek Grozny coach lasted a mere two months, without even taking charge of a competitive game. The expensively assembled egos that sit within the Anzhi dressing room want to see a renowned name take the hotseat, and their reported witch hunt to see Krasnozhan removed from his post will leave Hiddink’s successor persistently looking over his shoulder to make sure that a similar revolt is avoided.

Anzhi would do well to heed the warning of the various foreign coaches who have travelled to Russian clubs on a wave of success, only to return to their homelands with their reputations visibly tarnished. Yet, a severe dearth of domestic coaching talent means that Kerimov has little choice but to branch out a little further than the confines of Moscow for the next man to lead Anzhi to a successful future. But whoever heads into the job will be fully aware that another bronze medal finish will only be sufficient enough to have their head placed upon the block. Anzhi need success, and soon.

Luciano Spalletti is a gentleman who has found himself submerged within the vast pool of those who have overseen projects that have wreaked of complacency. The Italian’s domestic successes at Zenit St Petersburg over the past three and a half years have been monumental in scale, resulting in two league titles, a Russian Cup and a Russian Super Cup – yet we are still left to wonder whether the club’s board would be justified in discarding with Spalletti’s obvious talents.

It would seem a strange, and perhaps somewhat knee jerk, reaction to fire a coach who has been one of the club’s most successful in recent times and yet there are signs that a change may be beneficial for both parties. The words of Michael Laudrup, in response to Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement as Manchester United coach, seem somewhat fitting in describing the present situation: ‘In the South of Europe, after three years, they are always talking about changing [the coach] because they need a new face.’ The point that is made by the present Swansea coach is one that correlates to football across the world, it is excruciatingly difficult to ensure that a group of players remain committed to a cause after a handful of seasons, particularly following a period of consistent success.

An inherent decomposition that occurs in the wake of success, where hunger and desire are replaced by arrogance and self-satisfaction – in turn placing a negative spin on proceedings. It has been quite apparent over the past ten months that Zenit have been on a slippery slope to mediocrity, a decline that looks unlikely to halt under the present regime.

There have been a string of contentious moments that have occurred across the course of the season which have served to undermine the authority of Spalletti’s tenure, and placed him in an ever tightening headlock.

The signings of Hulk and Axel Witsel during the summer transfer window, for incredible amounts of money, were the first couple of nails to be placed in the proverbial coffin. Such inflated transfer fees and wages caused a rebellion among several established players of the squad, which culminated in Igor Denisov and Aleksandr Kerzhakov being relegated to training with the youth team – with Zenit releasing the following statement: ‘The decision to send Igor Denisov to the youth team for an indefinite period… is connected to the fact that the player issued an ultimatum, refusing to take to the field against Krylya Sovetov after demanding a renegotiation of his contract.’

Such dissent served to undermine Spalletti’s attempts to create a side that would be capable of reaching the latter stages of the Champions League – an objective that the Italian has struggled to achieve with regularity since moving to Russia. Hulk and Witsel were in turn pilloried for their greed and lack of ambition and would have been forgiven for wondering whether such a move was indeed worth the significant pay increase that they arrived in St Petersburg to enjoy.

The club’s lack of unity was apparent for all to see as results began to spiral out of control. A home defeat to Terek Grozny was followed by another humiliating 3-0 loss to Malaga, as well as a draw in Samara against Krylya Sovetov – a club who stand on the brink of relegation. Despite a brief upturn in fortunes in October, the distinct lack of camaraderie within the squad was shown on November 27^th, a day in which Bruno Alves and Aleksandar Kerzhakov share a birthday, where players were forced to choose between which team mate to celebrate with, The Portuguese speakers inevitably chose one side, with the Russians picking another. It was a comically high school situation which told its own story.

The birthday party disruption was followed by the club’s failure to claw themselves out of a Champions League group, including AC Milan and Anderlecht, and in turn an equally disappointing showing in the Europa League – particularly against eventual semi-finalists Basel. Gazprom, the company behind Zenit’s recent success, have long hoped to use the club as a platform to improve their exposure across Europe, and beyond. Their recent sponsorship deal with the Champions League itself, becoming one of the tournament’s lucrative main sponsors, has gone some way to alerting the wider public to their existence, yet a triumphant Zenit side in the competition remains the ultimate sporting goal for the business.

Spalletti’s impact in European competition has been a stick that is often used against him, including during his tenure as Roma coach, and his reputation has barely been enhanced since arriving in Russia. The stale manner in which Zenit have laboured at times domestically this season has been matched by equal ineptitude during their ventures across the continent and now seems an appropriate time for fresh input and ideas at a time where the club desperately needs to regroup following CSKA Moscow’s recent title triumph.

The problem for Zenit ultimately lies in whether a suitable replacement can be found at a point in time where a string of coaching changes are on the horizon for a number of prominent clubs across the continent. St Petersburg need not be regarded as the backwater that it once was a decade or so ago, yet Russian football remains a treacherous arena for coaches who are unwilling or unable to immerse themselves in the culture of a game that remains intrinsically different to much of Western Europe.

It is impossible to argue that Spalletti’s time at the club has not improved Zenit as a successful entity, yet there are frontiers to conquer that appear to out of his grasp. Much like his compatriot Roberto Mancini’s dismissal at Manchester City, Spalletti will be remembered fondly for the successes he managed to achieve and yet he could potentially leave a fragmented group of players who don’t entirely see eye to eye with one another. It won’t be a job for the faint hearted.

After starting the season with club legend Robert Prosinecki at their helm, praised for instilling renewed confidence and a clear game plan to the team, the Croat resigned on August 20 due to unpaid wages which saw Red Star spending the following six months under the leadership of 41-year-old Aleksandar Jankovic, who assumed the role of Serbia U21 coach in parallel. However, his hold over the dressing room gradually crumbled in the midst of major overhauls at the top of the club hierarchy which saw the club’s greatest ever player Dragan Dzajic back to the function of club president after a stint in prison. A tentative start to the season was marred by a dramatic elimination from the Europa League qualifying round in the last minute of the return leg against Bordeaux back in September meaning Red Star would once more fail to qualify for a European competition from which they have been deprived since 2007.

This led to Red Star trailing their arch-rivals and five-time successive league champions Partizan by up to 11 points back in March, when Ricardo Sa Pinto took up the challenge of getting a decaying club back to its feet by implementing brand new standards of discipline to a team where centre-back Milan Jovanovic had been caught drunk during the club’s winter training camp in Turkey.

Stamping his authority on the Red Star dressing room, Sa Pinto did not hesitate to demote promising forward Stefan Mihajlovic (18) back to the reserves after he failed to turn up at a training session, to which Mihajlovic answered with a terrific bicycle kick against Jagodina U21, which brought him back to the first team the following week. Overall Red Star have succeeded in blending promising young talents (notably left winger Darko Lazovic and left-back Filip Mladenovic, who make up the country’s most fluid overlapping partnership) with more experienced players back to Serbia after a stint abroad (former Wolverhampton defensive midfielder Nenad Milijas at their helm).

This kind of mixture is the same which got Partizan to the Champions’ League group stages three years ago, when veterans Sasa Ilic and Mladen Krstajic led their younger counterparts Radosav Petrovic and Stefan Savic against the likes of Arsenal on the ultimate European stage. It is one blend which is difficult to obtain in Serbian football today, as many a talented youngster will be flocked abroad before the age of 20 while experienced players seek to avoid a come-back to their home nation which is widely regarded as a regression in their playing career. However despite unpaid wages and ebbing stadium attendances, Red Star Belgrade have managed the feat of retaining their best youngsters over two successive transfer windows (with Lazovic notably refusing a move abroad) and create a team from scratch.

Partizan on the other hand have been the subject of a string negative events which dampened the team atmosphere ; head coach Vladimir Vermezovic was replaced less than a year after stepping in for Avram Grant in the wake of poorer and poorer results, mostly the upshot of a heavy complacency befalling the players. Meanwhile the club’s, and league’s, best player Lazar Markovic picked up an injury in February which got him on the sidelines for much of the second part of the season (a time he mostly spent in Watford, England, attending several of Chelsea’s home fixtures), further curbing the team’s impetus. Markovic, 18, is now back at training and rumoured to be fit to face Red Star on Saturday in what may well be his last eternal derby before a move abroad.

Only two league games will be left after this clash and you have to feel that the team that will be on top of the table after the derby will easily surf on that sudden boost to close out the league in the sequel. Though the most headline-grabbing story would be of Sa Pinto’s Red Star fighting their way back to the top of the table after six years in Partizan’s shadow and just two months after trailing their arch-rivals by 11 points, the hosts should still be seen as favourites as the advantage of a raucous home crowd added to the sporting stakes on display should shrug off the complacency seen among Partizan ranks in the past two months and lead to an intense football game.

The present situation that enshrouds Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade, is one that was seemingly incomprehensible a couple of months ago. Vladimir Vermezović’s side were cruising to league success, a title that would become their sixth straight domestic victory, and had in so managed to forge an eleven point lead at the top of the table, ahead of their bitter city rivals Crvena Zvezda. It was unimaginable that now, with only five games of the season remaining, the club may be set to complete one of the most remarkable falls from grace in recent memory.

Panic has ensued within the club since Partizan embarked on their recent spell of poor form, so much so that it was recently announced that they had dispensed with Vermezović – who was in his second spell as head coach – while appointing Vuk Rašović, in a somewhat surprising move, as his replacement. The 40 year old, former Partizan defender, has ultimately been plunged into the deep end in the hope that he can swim as he seeks to reverse the misfortune that has been cast in his team’s direction, and it is highly debatable as to whether he is a figure capable of turning the situation around.

Rašović’s coaching career has seen him rise through the ranks at Partizan, culminating in him taking over as head coach of second tier side Teleoptik, who are for all intents and purposes Partizan’s farm club. His role at Teleoptik is respectable position for sure yet, even in a landscape where internal promotions are seemingly in vogue, Teleoptik’s performances this term have left plenty to be desired with the club fighting against relegation to the third tier of Serbian football.

The Partizan job is one that requires a steady hand, one who is able to deal with boardroom infighting and an expectant public. You need only notice the fans recent behaviour, which has become increasingly restless and erratic, with seats and other objects being hurled onto the pitch at the club’s last league match against Novi Pazar – which in turn forced the match to be halted for several minutes as the barrage rained from the sky. It is scenario that will no doubt be replicated at the club’s remaining games, should Rašović be unable to rectify the situation and provide additional impetus ahead of the impending Eternal Derby against Crvena Zvezda, which will be one of the most intense fixtures in recent memory.

It’s therefore privy to assess just how Partizan’s demise over recent weeks has ultimately coincided with the reversal of fortunes for Crvena Zvezda who, under the guidance of Ricardo Sa Pinto, the club’s third manager of the season incidentally, have undergone a phenomenal transformation. The former Sporting CP coach has overseen a run of six straight victories, with five of those comprising of clean sheets, which has provided the springboard for a significant assault on the league title. It is the first time that Crvena Zvezda have truly managed to mount a challenge to Partizan’s supremacy since 2008 when the club finished five points behind their city rivals, however since then the gap hasn’t only served to widen.

The influence of Pinto cannot be taken lightly. This is a team who went on a run of four defeats in the final six matches prior to the winter break, and monumentally struggled in the defensive third – as the team had only managed to keep four clean sheets prior to Pinto taking the reins. A title challenge is rarely mounted upon a swashbuckling brand of football that lives in the knowledge that conceding a goal is not a travesty. However, the Portuguese coach has seemingly managed to bring together a greater sense of collective, and as such solidity has become an important facet of the team’s play. Crvena Zvezda have hardly had the most taxing of fixtures over the past few weeks, however these were matches that you may well have anticipated the team to slip up within, particularly under the previous regime.

The prospect of the Eternal Derby, on Partizan’s home soil, is truly mouthwatering and could potentially serve to be the title deciding fixture. Rarely has so much hung on the result of such a game, aside from the pride of the fans, and yet should Pinto’s revival continue then Partizan will have their backs well and truly up against the wall, with no other option than to come out fighting. Crvena Zvezda still have a number of hazardous games in store over the coming weeks, against the likes of Jagodina and Vojvodina, which will provide the team with their sternest test since appointing their new Portuguese fancy, however the players appear to be forged of tougher steel than anyone thought possible and it may just be that tougher armour that overcomes Partizan’s softening frame.

Muhamed Konjić, to this day a cult-hero amongst supporters of Coventry City, made his Premiership début in February 1999. A second half substitute appearance at Tottenham was the first of sixteen league games ‘Big Mo’ played for the Sky Blues before their relegation from the top-flight two and a half years later. Not a superlative amount by any stretch, mostly it was injuries that hampered his chance to give more, but what is extraordinary is the path that took him there.

Konjić was only 21 and playing for his home town club, Sloboda Tuzla, when they had to pull out of the Yugoslav First League near the end of 1991/92 season because of the outbreak of war. From combative defender to defending Bosnia in combat, he was drafted into the Army. “I had no choice because we were being attacked and it was a case of fight or die. It was a very difficult time but fortunately none of my family died during the hostilities.”

He thought his career was over before it had really began. He didn’t play or train for eight months as the war became his, and his fellow compatriots lives. “Everyone from Bosnia has terrible stories to tell about the conflict and mine is nothing exceptional” he insisted to The Mirror. “In the first six months alone, there were 300,000 casualties and it’s difficult to speak about it. I don’t want to make political statements because I am a footballer, not a politician, but I can only say what I saw. The Serbian and Croatian armies came to my home village and flattened it.”

“During the war, your only concern was to stay alive with your family, but even that was hard. We had no food, no water and no medicine, all you had was hope. War took away four of the best years of my career. Between 22 and 25 you are in your prime.” He’d started to drink to hide from the horrors around him when, fortunately, NK Belišće (playing in the Prva HNL – the top division of Croatia) offered him a way out. They were a third of the way into 92/93 season, and the transfer was paid for by the modest team with food parcels for the people of Tuzla.

Cruelly, Konjić wasn’t through the worst of it. On the drive to Croatia, long and treacherous because of the war, it is believed the driver fell asleep, and the vehicle fell into a ditch on the bomb-ravaged road. His friend died in the accident, and Konjić suffered two broken arms.

In spite of this he insisted on making his début two weeks later, even though the pain brought tears to his eyes. “I would kill the striker to win the ball in mid-air, but it was always me who was crying when we came down. Everyone thought it was strange that a big, strong, young player should be crying on the pitch for no reason, but nobody knew that I was playing with both arms broken.”

Needless to say Muhamed Konjić didn’t lack commitment. It was this never say die attitude, amongst other things, that would endear him to the hearts of Coventry City fans. He spent three more seasons in Croatia, for NK Zagreb, impressing enough to be offered the chance to play for the Croatia national team. He politely declined, dreaming of a day when the fighting would stop in Bosnia and he’d have a country of his own to represent.

That chance finally came in November 1995 when, just nine days after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement which brought an end to the war, Bosnia & Herzegovina played Albania in Tirana. They lost the game 2-0 but Konjić was proud captain of the side, and would go on to lead them a further nineteen times in a total of 39 caps.

In 1996 he moved to FC Zurich in Switzerland, and then a year later to then French champions AS Monaco. He stayed in the principality, arguably the polar opposite of Bosnia, for 18 months, and was an ever-present in the side. He played in both legs of the teams famous Champions League quarter final defeat of Manchester United alongside Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet in 1998.

It was while playing for his country in a game against Croatia a year before that he first came to the attention of then Coventry boss Gordon Strachan. Strachan was at the game watching another player but was so impressed with how Konjić marked Alen Bokšić he enquired to his availability. Disappointed to discover that his transfer to Monaco was already arranged, he never forgot him, and the deal to finally bring him to the Premier League happened in January 1999 for £2million.

He made 138 league appearances for the Sky Blues in five and a half seasons where his commitment on the field, and humble nature off it, made him a fan’s favourite. His experiences during the war made him the player he was, and he felt proud to represent Bosnia wherever he went in Europe. He was happy calling Coventry home, and always had time to talk to fans around the city. “What I do know is that, at Coventry, life or death is no longer the only choice I have to make” he said at the time.

He had an injury-plagued spell at Derby County before retiring from the game in 2006 but still had one final gift for the people of Britain’s most famous war-affected city. Fate saw to it that Coventry’s last game at their old Highfield Road stadium in 2005 would be against Big Mo’s Derby. He had a shocker by all accounts, even conceding a penalty, as Coventry ran out 6-2 winners to preserve their status in England’s second tier, and his status in football folklore.

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This is not to become yet another obituary to the former Prime Minister, as Thatcher’s reign unwittingly holds some parallels to the tenure of a certain female figure in the world of Russian football. Lokomotiv Moscow’s President, Olga Smorodskaya, is a woman in the mould of the former British Prime Minister. Here is a woman who, rightly or wrongly, takes decisive action without a second glance and who has garnered a reputation for being one of the toughest individuals in Russian sport.

Smorodskaya is a much reviled figure in the Lokomotiv board room. Here is a woman who acts in a cold, calculated manner and all too often comes across publicly as lacking the personable demeanour required to win over those who so vocally call for her removal. It is not an understatement at all to say that Smorodskaya is despised by a significant proportion of the Lokomotiv fanbase, who feel as though she has inadequately overseen a period of stagnation, which is presently compounded by Slaven Bilic’s woefully inept tenure.

There remains more than a whiff of sexism in the air, which has been present since Smorodskaya arrived at the club in 2010 – incidentally from Lokomotiv’s bitter city rivals CSKA, which obviously hasn’t helped matters. The impact of such prejudice from those in and around Russian football is a discussion for another day, however the unrelenting assault that she has been forced to endure is such that it is difficult to know how one has managed to remain in charge for so long amid such pressure. This, in itself, is testament to the mentality of Smorodskaya, who seems incapable of even attempting to recognise the criticism that is hurled her way.

Lokomotiv has endured a trying season under the guidance of former Croatia coach Slaven Bilic. The appointment of such a highly regarded young manager was greeted with a significant degree of excitement, as it appeared as though the club may soon be capable of competing for a place in European competition. A somewhat swashbuckling start, which saw goals scored and as many conceded, gave the impression that Bilic’s side could well be the season’s entertainers – picking up where Sergei Silkin’s Dinamo Moscow had left off the previous year. However the team have quickly turned into a sterile lump of inadequacy, that is summed up by their inability to score and Roman Pavlyuchenko’s goal drought that goes all the way back to October.

Bilic is facing a particularly trying period, and should results not improve over the coming weeks then a separation seems inevitable, however it is Smorodskaya – as opposed to the Croat – who is taking the brunt of the flack. Again the issue of gender comes to the fore, as her role as the leading lady of Russian football makes her a relatively easy target in a landscape that is overwhelmingly dominated by men at every single level.

The question that must be asked is as to whether Smorodskaya actually deserves to be placed under such pressure. The answer is relatively simple, as it most definitely isn’t deserved. Upon arriving at the club, Smorodskaya took it upon herself to rebuild Lokomotiv into an entity that could be capable of matching the ambition of its expectant fan base. From pay structures to renovations to personnel, there were few nooks or crannies that weren’t given a good assessment and review, and yet still her actions were seen as detrimental to the progression of the club as a whole. Her treatment of both Yuri Semin and Yuri Krasnozhan, who was sacked by the club in rather acrimonious circumstances reportedly related to match fixing, were seen as cold manoeuvres that left the club rudderless as the most desperate of times – however both decisions were necessary in the given circumstances.

It is ultimately Smorodskaya’s inability to align herself directly with Lokomotiv’s fans that has formed a significant degree of ire. During a preseason meeting with the fans during the early period of her Presidency, she had the temerity to clean up some spilt water on her table with a club scarf that happened to be within reach. It is such simple nuances that have not been adopted and while a professional attitude is of utmost importance in the day to day running of one of Russia’s premier football clubs, an olive branch to the fans is of equal importance.

Margaret Thatcher’s reign can be looked upon as one of the defining periods in the history of the latter 20^th century of Great Britain, both domestically and internationally. For Lokomotiv Moscow’s Iron Lady it would appear as though she will need to maintain her unrelenting authority over the club during a period where rumours are abound that the owners, Russian Railways, could be set to inject fresh blood into the board room. Smorodskaya is a fighter though, and this is a bout that has barely reached the first bell.

The night of 15 May 1998 is so far-removed from the current stock that it’s hard to believe it even happened. A 1-1 draw at Proleter on the final evening of their first ever top-flight campaign was enough to seal the FR Yugoslavia (combined Serbia and Montenegro) title over Red Star Belgrade, who stumbled to defeat at lowly Železnik. Obilić finished two points clear of their more illustrious neighbours, losing only one game in the process. They also narrowly lost that year’s cup final to Partizan Belgrade. Their instrumental midfielder, Nenad Grozdić, who went on to earn eleven caps for FR Yugoslavia, felt that the key to their success was down to the club’s president Željko Ražnatović. “He has given us a winning mentality”. In truth what he gave the club was something much more sinister.

Arkan, as he’s more infamously known, was a savage paramilitary leader who cut a gory swathe through the Western Balkans in the early 90s when he founded and commanded the Serbian Volunteer Guard. Arkan’s Tigers, as they became known, were notorious for their part in the ethnic cleansing of the non-Serb population of parts of Croatia and Bosnia. Masquerading behind ideas of a greater Serbia, grand-scale looting was also common practice. The black market was big business in Serbia as a result of the UN sanctions imposed on the nation, and Arkan was head honcho. He became one of the richest people in the country. His much darker involvement in the wars led to him being indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1997 for, amongst other things, genocide.

To bring about this winning mentality, Arkan instilled a military discipline into the Obilić squad, and claimed his players were the highest paid in the country, but it’s highly unlikely that was the whole picture. His reputation alone was enough to see to it that opposition players didn’t give their all against his team, and if there was any confusion, threats were made. It’s widely reported that he personally threatened to shoot a rival striker in the kneecaps if he scored, and another player claimed to be locked inside a garage when his team faced Obilić. There are rumours of the away dressing rooms being gassed before games, hard to believe but a story Red Star took seriously enough to get changed on the team bus. They also avoided the facilities offered at half-time amid tales of Arkan’s regular abuse-filled team talks for away teams. The once European Champions took to urinating pitch-side rather than head down the tunnel at Obilić Stadium.

Not that the atmosphere in the stadium was any friendlier. The majority of the crowd was made up of war veterans from The Tigers, many of them armed, singing catchy chants such as “we’ll break both your legs, you’ll walk on your hands” and “if you score, you’ll never walk out of the stadium alive.” The Tigers would also escort referees to matches, making ‘suggestions’ as to how things should pan out. During the following season, Red Star forward Perica Ognjenović, who had played at France 98, complained “this is not soccer, this is war. I think I’d better leave this country.” He joined Real Madrid in 1999.
During the 70s and 80s Interpol were on Arkan’s tail due to his prolific record as a bank robber throughout Western Europe. He spent time behind bars in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, but each time managed to escape. He developed an almost mythical reputation as a result, culminating in a truly audacious act. After he and two associates had performed a heist on a Stockholm bank, one was captured by the police. Arkan, and the remaining other, in spite of being in possession of all the day’s plunder, went in rescue of their accomplice. Six days after the job they caught news of the trial at the city’s court house. Dressed to the nines and armed with revolvers, the two men stormed Stockholms Rådhus. When the ensuing gun-fight was done, the three were driving free through the busy morning traffic after escaping out of a smashed window, and down a seventeen foot drop. Not long after that it’s alleged Yugoslavia’s secret police, the UDBA, started employing Arkan as an assassin. He returned to Belgrade in the mid-80s and ran the criminal underworld with impunity thanks to these links.

He had originally tried to buy Red Star Belgrade, but his offer was flat-out refused by the great Dragan Džajić, the club’s record goal scorer, appearance holder, and president. Arkan had had previous ties with Red Star when both state and club officials had seen to it he was put in charge of the Supporters’ Club, amid fears that some fan groups were beginning to lean towards anti-government ideals. He brought all the groups together under one umbrella and trained them like an army. The Delije, or ‘hardmen’, would form the beginnings of The Tigers, and judging by comments he made to a reporter, that was always the plan. “We trained fans without weapons. I insisted on discipline from the very beginning. You know our fans – they’re noisy, they like to drink, to joke about. I stopped all that in one go. I made them cut their hair, shave regularly, not drink. And so it began.” Arkan and his new army were active participants in the riot at Maksimir Stadium in Croatia in May 1990 when they clashed with Dinamo Zagreb supporters. The event is seen by some as the start of the war, and by all as the beginning of the end for the Yugoslav First League.

After Džajić’s rebuff he turned his attention to FC Pristina in Kosovo, then a region of Serbia, and forever the cultural centre-piece to Serbian nationalism. His first act as owner was to sack all the players of Albanian ethnicity (Kosovo has an Albanian majority, a fact that would lead to the outbreak of war there in 1998, and the state’s declaration of independence ten years later). The team, who during the 80s had enjoyed a spell playing at the highest level in Yugoslavia, struggled as a result of his meddling, and he discarded them, feeling more akin to Obilić Belgrade and their historic name.

The story goes that Miloš Obilić was a knight to the service of Prince Lazar, a medieval ruler. He fought in the Serb’s tragic Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire in 1389, a defeat that lost them their country for five hundred years. Folklore portrays him as the hero who killed Sultan Murad I, the history books aren’t so sure. Serbian nationalism is rooted in the idea that they are the eternal victim because of an offer Lazar was made when visited by an angel of God on the eve of the battle, that of an earthly, or, an eternal heavenly kingdom. Victory or defeat. Serbs see themselves as a ‘heavenly people’ since that defeat at Kosovo. Arkan saw himself as a modern-day Miloš Obilić.

He took over in June 1996, changing the kit colour to yellow in tribute to The Tigers. They were promoted after his first season, and national champions by the end of his second. By summer 1998, UEFA were suspicious. They banned Obilić from European competition for their debut Champions League season, so Arkan resigned and appointed his wife, Turbo-Folk singer Svetlana ‘Ceca’ Ražnatović, as his puppet. That proved enough for the ever diligent UEFA, and after disposing of Iceland’s ÍBV in the first qualifying round, they got their match with Bayern Munich. The second leg draw they achieved was a trivial footnote to a 4-0 reverse in Bavaria, however they’d come far enough to receive passage to the first round proper of the UEFA Cup. They got to pit their wits against another of Europe’s elite, losing 3-0 on aggregate to Atlético Madrid. That season they again made claims on the title, but eventually just missed out to Partizan, with their greatest achievements already behind them.

Arkan was assassinated on 15 January 2000 in the lobby of a Belgrade hotel. The background of why still remains a mystery, but speculation suggests he was a man who knew too much as the ICTY tightened its net on war-time President Slobodan Milošević. Ceca inherited the club, a third and fourth place finish followed, but Obilić’s days of philandering with the elite were done. Ceca would spend time under house arrest in 2011 for the embezzlement of money the club received from transfers.

Obilić currently sit top of the seventh division, with a youthful squad of unpaid players. Even though their first promotion in sixteen years would be more symbolic than a sign they are again on the raise, it would be a rare moment of celebration for the hundred or so hardy fans that now turn out to watch them, and talk fondly of the time they were owned by Serbia’s most controversial national hero.

It is with these words that Dinamo Zagreb coach Miroslav Blazevic shrugged off his staff’s suggestion to retain the 18-year-old prospect on trial from low-key Borovo in the spring of 1987. He had little awareness then that the youngster he had just spent three weeks teasing his long scruffy hair and inability to use his right foot would go on to become one of Europe’s most revered free-kick takers, and a stalwart of some of Serie A’s finest ever sides. Red Star Belgrade fans often joke that Blazevic proved their best ever scout in refusing to offer a professional contract to the left-back who went on to play an integral part in their side’s Champions League victory in 1991.

His decision was all the more startling that Radmilo Mihajlovic had little in common with his homonym. A powerful striker who went on to join Bayern Munich, he had ironically sought a transfer to his dream club Red Star Belgrade weeks before signing for Dinamo. As fate would have it, his 18-year-old son Stefan (also a striker) succeeded where his father failed by making his debut for Red Star in January this year. The ramifications of Blazevic’s rebuttal went far beyond Sinisa Mihajlovic’s eventual club career, and they explain why no one will relish the clash between both nations on Friday more than the Serbia coach.

One can rightly wonder whether the oft-depicted nationalist Serb may actually had not represented arch-rival Croatia, his mother’s native country, were it not for Dinamo’s rejection. Hitherto a feature for Croatia’s youth teams in inter-republic tournaments (it was incidentally his Croatia team-mates Davor Suker and Robert Prosinecki who recommended him to the Dinamo staff), Sinisa Mihajlovic refused to pander to the Yugoslavia U21 ethnic Croat coach Mirko Jozic’s behest to stay put at Dinamo or forget about the national team. This cost the young left-back a place in the coveted Yugoslavian side that won the 1987 FIFA Youth World Cup, years before the country embarked on a decade-long decomposition at the exit of which Sinisa Mihajlovic had elected to represent Serbia, his father’s country.

The independence of Croatia had incidentally started on a football pitch with a match between Dinamo and Red Star turning into an ethnic clash between the Croatian fans and Serb-backed Yugoslavian police. The same Maksimir Stadion pitch where both countries will clash on Friday.

Recalling a visit to his childhood home in Vukovar, located in Croatia’s Eastern extremity near the Serbian border, many years after the war, Mihajlovic said he found his family pictures ripped apart, his parents’ and his own eyeballs removed by the Croatian militia who had burnt his house down.

Around that time, a Croatia side coached by the same man who refused to give him a chance at Dinamo a decade earlier reached the third spot of the 1998 World Cup while Yugoslavia (soon to be « Serbia and Montenegro ») languished in the deep ends of European football.

The year after what remains Croatia’s finest footballing achievement, both countries were drawn in the same EURO 2000 qualifying group. For the first time since independence, the much-lauded Croats were to face their enemies.

Both face-offs ended in draws, as is often the case in football games where the environment surrounding the event overtakes the event itself.

The first game in Belgrade, mere months after NATO bombed down most of the city in March 1999, was a goalless draw. The second game ended 2-2 amid insults thrown at the Yugoslavia players throughout their stay in Zagreb (Dejan Savicevic giving reviewing the dirty dictionary of the Serbo-Croat language to a passer-by here). Both countries did not meet again since.

Though it might be a stretch to say Mihajlovic accepted the position of Serbia coach simply for the face-off between both neighbours, there is certainly no football coach on Earth who will crave victory more than the 44-year-old Croatian-born from Vukovar who now claims that “as a Serb, [he] would never manage a Croatian club”. In a context of weeks of provocations from both sides, culminating in Dinamo’s president Zdravko Mamic being questioned by the police last week after claiming the Serbian-born Minister of Sports of Croatia Zeljko Jovanovic is ‘ethnically unfit for the job’. Miroslav Blazevic himself said Croatia will cruise to a 4-0 victory.

If the context surrounding the game was not exciting enough for Sinisa Mihajlovic, the sporting stakes are equally massive for his team. Serbia once again enter the game as dark horses as they trail their neighbours, co-leaders of Group A with Belgium, by 6 points after two successive nightmares against Belgium and Macedonia. Anything else than a victory would see the Serbs’ World Cup hopes called a day.

The Serbian players and staff sought solace in that worrying state of affairs by adopting an underdog stance in the past few days. Team captain Branislav Ivanovic said his team ‘will have nothing to lose on Friday, with the home crowd only increasing the pressure on the heavily favoured home team to deliver.’ Coach Mihajlovic himself said yesterday his players will be travelling to Zagreb ‘to have fun’, with Croatia captain Darijo Srna quickly retorting that ‘Serbia will have fun but we will have the victory.’

Altogether, it might well be a blessing in disguise for the Serbians to have their backs against the wall entering this tenuous contest, although even a positive outcome would hardly mean their 2014 World Cup quest will end in joy.

What it would mean, at the very least to Serbian football fans starting from their head coach, is that honour is safe.