CROATIA

Igor Lasic, AIM Zagreb

After the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, the central sport -- soccer -- evolved under the direction of a single man, Franjo Tudjman. The late Croatian president loved to cite Klausevitz by saying that "Soccer is a continuation of war by other means." In 1998, the Croatian national team won third place at the World Championship in France. Tudjman not only wanted to manipulate sport for political purposes, but wanted to prove himself as the chief tactician. His vanity almost forced him to put on a shirt and run into the stadium, after being declared a supreme expert in soccer theory. Top athletes did their best to add to the national-sports euphoria. Thus, national team captain Zvonimir Boban said that "without Tudjman there would have been no third place in France." Between two-year competition cycles, the president also had his own soccer toy, the Zagreb premier division team, Dinamo, whose name he finally changed into Croatia. The club went on to win five national championships in a row... After Tudjman's death and the fall of his regime, a comprehensive investigation was launched into financial scams in which the club was involved.

Sport is having a difficult time recovering from political power-mongers. The dust has yet to settle after last year's initiative launched by Slovenia to organize an Adriatic Basketball League for the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In search of better pay and competitions of higher quality, athletes have supported the initiative, but politicians are preventing them from settling the matter. The conclusion is that maybe one day such a league could be organized, but no one dares to say how long it will take... Changes are slow and slight, but they exist. They can be noticed in the gradual abandoning of collectivistic patterns, and in the popularization of certain individual sports. Thanks to successes in skiing and swimming, the public felt the change and responded with obvious sympathy. This means that it is undergoing a period of mental rehabilitation.