Ljajic beaten up by his coach....

[labatt_blue]

and is now dropped from the Serbian squad due to his reluctance so sing the national anthem.

I am severly divided on the issue. If you chose to represent a country then why do you chose not to sing the anthem?? How can you be anti-anthem but pro country?? However nobody should be forced to sing the anthem either.

Ibrahimovic never sang the swedish anthem, cammoronesi never sang the italian one, i'm sure half the french team don't even speak french let alone sing the anthem but they're ok to play there.

I personally believe that when it come to playing for the NT the players should play out of love and respect for the country and not just to bolster their image in front of scouts from all over the world.

i've looked into the issue a bit more, and people say that Ljaic is a muslim and he can't sing the serbian anthem. It's not a christian anthem (or is it??), it's a serbian one and represents the serbian people, and last I checked ljaic is a serbian. religion has nothing to do with it (or once again does it??)

while I somewhat agree with the decision to drop him from the squad if he won't show loyalty to the squad and country he plays for I still can't help but feel that this is very discriminatory.

Please chime in and help me decide how I should feel about all this.

That is one very ignorant, and stupid statement.

The only thing that should matter is what they do on the pitch.

i'll admit it was quite ignorant, maybe even stupid but what i'm trying to say is that the lots of players on the french NT are not "really" frenchmen.

patrice evra, malouda, mandanda, sagna (who wanted to play for senegal), our own viera, the list can go on and on...

 

[Joga Bonito]

i'm a great fan of delio rossi. this is what mancini should have done to tevez in munchen.

No. It's what he should have done to Dzeko for his reaction to the sub, which was all a prelude to what happened with Tevez.

No, just no.

 

[MSP]

Serbian anthem is nation and religion related, not country related as most of the anthems.

He is Bosniak and Muslim, and refused to sing Serbian orthodox anthem, there's still lot of tensions going around between two nations in both Bosnia and part of Serbia with Bosniaks majority where Ljajic is from. It's hardly surprise that he refused to do it, lot of 100% Serbian but atheists don't love the anthem too.

Just an explanation of the situation, running away now before I got dragged in another nasty Serbia related discussion.

 

[labatt_blue]

still doesn't explain why he chose to play for them in the first place.

 

[The Pink Panther]

still doesn't explain why he chose to play for them in the first place.

Perhaps he chose to play for them as he feels he's representing the oppressed Serbian Muslims

 

[MSP]

Ljajic is born in Serbia and played for all of their selections since he was 10. He was eligible to play for Bosnia and wanted by our FA but he picked the country he was born in. Something that doesn't happen in Bosnia if some Bosnian Serb player is wanted by Serbia.

He would be good if he picked Bosnia though as our anthem doesn't have lyrics at all as Bosnian Serbs are basically issuing a veto on any text that has word Bosnia in it as much as paradox it is.

"You must sing anthem" came with new coach and this was first match when that policy was official. He is shit manager and on Balkans when you're shit in your job, the best thing to do is to play on nationalistic card. Specially when your mother is Croatian and your kids don't know the word of Serbian since you married italian girl and live there all time after it (bigger catholic thatn Pope and that stuff).

Yes, Ljajic could avoid it by refusing to play the match at all but he probably thought those rules won't be implemented seriously.

Anyway, it's very complex situation with load of hypocrisy in it from Serbian side, it would required some serious post written for you guys to understand it completely but I just had a ban warning few days ago for being a part of one Serbian related discussion so don't want to go too deep in it.

Ljajic definitely has my full support to refuse to do it and one good thing in all this is that I've browsed some Serbian portals yesterday and there's probably some 30% of Serbs who understand why he did it (at least on some more liberal portals, don't have stomach to check others). It's just too obvious that nobody but Serbs orthodox can't identify himself with that anthem. And that gets even more weight after all shit this area went through not so long ago and when there are some serious political issues between two nations in both countries.

 

[The Pink Panther]

If you want to see people who have no respect for any national anthem, then sit back and watch the presentation at the end of an F1 race
I understand people not singing, but at least have some fucking respect, stand still and shut up

 

[MSP]

If you want to see people who have no respect for any national anthem, then sit back and watch the presentation at the end of an F1 race
I understand people not singing, but at least have some fucking respect, stand still and shut up

that's exactly what Ljajic was doing for years including the last match after which he got banned from the team ;)

The respect for national anthem in situations when it's publicly performed is a matter of civilized behavior, identifying yourself with it and feeling butterflies while it's performed :) is another thing.

I privately don't feel butterflies for any anthem, including my own, couldn't care less about that stuff to be honest.