Bosnia and Herzegovina comply with UEFA and FIFA demands

fifa logoIt wasn’t an April fools prank when FIFA and UEFA suspended the Bosnian national team and clubs from international competition on April 1. Now, Bosnia and Herzegovina has adopted new statues in an effort to have its ban from FIFA and UEFA competitions lifted.

The suspension was initially handed down due to a failure by the NFS BiH to meet a deadline to reform its three-man ethnic presidency, whose structure contravened FIFA and UEFA standards. FIFA then appointed a six-man normalisation committee, headed by Slovenian Rudi Zavrl, to run the NFS BiH until a single president was elected. Bosnia and Herzegovina have since agreed to comply and replace its three-member leadership with a single president.

As Reuters reports, Senior Bosnian soccer official Faruk Hadzibegic said “This has opened the doors for the suspension to be lifted by the end of the month so we can carry on with our Euro 2012 campaign.”

NFS BiH said on its website, “After a short and constructive debate, the new statutes were adopted unanimously by 55 of the 56 deputies who attended the session.”

The country is set to resume Euro 2012 qualifying on June 3 against Romania and the team currently sits fourth in the Group D standings with seven points, five behind leader France.