In the early 1990s I was fully aware of the simmering political tensions in what was Yugoslavia and how the unrest led to the horrible wars in Croatia and Bosnia. As I watched the news with my Mum she regularly asked me to explain who was fighting and who was on the good side and the bad side. Is there a good side in a war? It was terrible to see this happening so close to home. It's easier to admit now that the "closeness to home" factor shouldn't have been a reason to feel more affected by it. The war in Kuwait and Iraq or anywhere else should have been equally saddening, because wars are terrible.
But as with many other significant events for me there was a connection with football. The passion of the supporters of the different clubs across Yugoslavia was evident but I didn't really understand the true reasons why Dinamo Zagreb hated Red Star Belgrade. Really hated. Not like Manchester United and City, Birmingham and Aston Villa, or even Rangers and Celtic. These supporters would be prepared to fight their rivals to their death, not because of football but to defend their Croatian and Serbian roots. And it was with this background that the "kick that started a war" happened.
Zvonimir Boban, who went on to become one of the stars of the great Croatian team of the 1998 World Cup was the perpetrator of the infamous kick. He was incensed that Red Star fans were being left to attack Dinamo fans, 10 minutes into a match between the two. He launched his kick at a policeman and it took the fight between Serbs and Croats to a higher level. Whether that incident started the war in Croatia is debatable but it definitely brought the tensions out in the open. And from there it escalated into the terrible civil war.
I followed it closely, as I did the Bosnian war, but I can never say that I fully understood it. But how could I, so safely ensconced in my comfortable life?
It is no lie though, no exaggeration of facts that this was the background that many (most?) of the Croatian team playing in the World Cup Final on Sunday grew up in.
We can be sad about England and them being so close, and I still will be, but these Croatians, and excuse me for being blunt, suffered some real shit.
So come what may on Sunday, watch those Croatians with an understanding of where the passion comes from with which their supporters will them on to win, a passion for a very young country that lost many, many lives to be what and where it is today.
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