Cheered on from early morning until late afternoon by an enthusiastic crowd in the picturesque setting, the street football produced hundreds of goals to enthral excited fans huddled around portable plastic boundary boards fitted together like Lego bricks. Booming background music added to the carnival atmosphere as locals watched 12 teams compete in the popular end-to-end contest. And after topping their respective tables, Sarajevo’s OFFS, a predominantly Muslim team, came from behind to defeat home side Sutjeska 1 2-1 0 in a breathtaking final.
“I really think the tournament has made a difference,” adds Jelena. “We are planning to get the teams together on a regular basis. And who knows, maybe other cultural activities will come from it.”
Zoran is also looking ahead. “I want to see street football spread to other cities,” says the resident of Serbia’s capital. “We want to arrange a league in Belgrade called ‘Kids from the Hood’ with the support of the British Council and the city government.”
Foca’s example could well kick off a series of competitions throughout the Balkans. Already other clubs have proposed hosting return tournaments as a sign of friendship. There may still be border controls but lines of communication are getting stronger in the lands of the former Yugoslavia.

With the sun getting his hat on, it seemed like the whole town had come out to play or be involved in the festival. “I want Foca to become a town of friendship and of sport,” declared the town’s mayor, Zdravko Krsmanovic, after patiently answering questions from TV reporters from across the region. “It doesn’t matter who wins. The important thing is that young people from other countries can take part. We want to send a message that Foca is an open town, and because of the tradition here we can do it through football.”
Under the 1995 Dayton Agreement, Foca became part of the Serb Republika Srpska. Most of the Muslims, who had previously made up the majority of the town’s 40,000 inhabitants, moved to the nearby town of Gorazde. Today, curfews no longer exist but once night falls it is still extremely rare to see Muslim youths in Foca or Serb children in Gorazde.
Despite some initial hesitation, once the ball began to roll, curiosity got the better of the youngsters. In parks, outside coffee bars and in the hotels where many were staying together, addresses were swapped, numbers noted and e-mails exchanged. By the following day, post-tournament matches had sprung up around Foca’s six bridges and two rivers with promises of renewed meetings. “They are smiling again,” said sports teacher Jelena Dostic. “It is just so sweet to see the children having fun and being happy.”

Between 1974 and 1990, Foca was known throughout the Balkans as the place to see Yugoslavia’s most promising footballers, including many of the ‘golden generation’ that triumphed at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Chile in 1987.
Following the success of its first two events and after witnessing street football’s social appeal at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Berlin, Football Friends, a network member of streetfootballworld, added a parallel event for 2007.
Staged on an adjoining playground, street football brought together sides from Serbia, Macedonia, Sarajevo and the region around Foca-, Trebinje, Gorazde and Visegrad, in an event supported by the Football for Hope movement.
“Bad things happened here so we wanted to change the negative image of Foca. When you say you are visiting Bosnia, people look up at you as if you are mad,” says Zoran, who helped two youth players from last year’s tournament join a ‘Football Friends Balkans’ team for the first Street Football World Cup – the streetfootballworld festival 06. “I can never forget my town and I wanted to show that it’s a normal place with normal people – a place where football can make a difference.”