Bosnian cup match halted after linesman hit
Reuters - Wednesday 04 April 2012, 21:03
The Bosnian Cup semi-final between Borac
Banjaluka and visiting Zeljeznicar Sarajevo was abandoned on
Wednesday after home fans hit a linesman with a missile.
A charged atmosphere rife with nationalist chants boiled
over midway through the second half when Borac fans hurled a
hard object that hit the linesman, forcing referee Midhat
Arnatuvic to stop the match.
It was the second successive match between the two teams to
be abandoned after their league fixture last September was
halted at the same venue when Borac fans invaded the pitch and
hurled rocks and flares at Zeljeznicar supporters.
Zeljeznicar were leading 1-0 through a superb Zajko Zeba
free-kick on Wednesday when trouble erupted.
Bosnian football has been plagued with violence in recent
years as rival fans in the ethnically divided country clash
regularly when their teams play each other.
During last September's league match between Borac and
Zeljeznicar, the home fans produced a banner hailing Bosnian
Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic.
In October, a friendly between Zeljeznicar and Croatian side
Hajduk Split was cancelled before kick-off in Sarajevo after
rival fans turned the streets of Bosnia's capital into a
battlefield, injuring dozens of people and damaging cars.
Fighting erupted inside the Grbavica stadium and continued
after police drove out the hooligans.