Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina held a conference titled "Sports clubs' financial and organizational problems - how to prevent sports from fading out in BiH" today at the hotel Terme, Ilidza.

The conference was attended by representatives from BH Telecom Premier League clubs, BiH Olympic Committee, FBiH and RS football associations, BiH handball association, Union of professional football players, KK Bosna basketball club, FBiH Ministry of justice, as well as the Ministry of culture and sports.

Attendees were welcomed by FFBIH president Elvedin Begic and general secretary Jasmin Bakovic. Among other things, Begic said that today's conference is a step forward for the future cooperation between sports associations and the authorities, and expressed hope that the ideas presented today will contribute in solving the ongoing problems.

Sinisa Kisic, vice president of the BiH Olympic Committee, welcomed FFBIH's idea to organize such a conference and expects that mutual cooperation between sports clubs and state authorities will be brought to a higher level with the sole goal of rescuing the sports clubs in our country.

Chairman of FFBIH legal committee Enes Hasic held a presentation on "Football clubs' legal status, with special emphasis on status, work and tax laws", pointing out that the basic objectives and ideas of today's meeting are to address the problems of clubs, and how government can help preserve their integrity. In this regard, professor Hasic spoke about the organization of sports clubs through comparative law, labor law status of athletes, legal statuses of players according to the FIFA regulations, and the problems sports organizations are facing in terms of tax policies.

FK Zeljeznicar representative Amar Bajramovic presented "Analysis of the FBiH and RS tax laws", where he referenced the professional and amateur players' contracts, professional players' tax treatment, investment in sports, as well as the inadequate infrastructure within the clubs.

The experiences from Croatian Football Federation were told by Ivan Zelic who held a lecture titled "Natural persons' business in the sports system of the Republic of Croatia". In his speech, Zelic talked about the legal framework, obligatory fees, taxation of professionals and amateur athletes, taxation of sports scholarships, awards for sport achievements, and finally about the sports referees, delegates and head coaches' salaries. Zelic also analyzed the sport clubs' organization in Croatia, where most them were transformed from civic associations to joint-stock companies.

After the informative lectures, the participants engaged in a constructive discussion during which they exchanged opinions and experiences, but also expressed a regret that most of the invited state and entity representatives didn't respond and attended today's meeting.

At the end of the conference, general secretary Jasmin Bakovic said: "FFBIH initiated this meeting as a first step towards solving the problems of sports in our country. We can be satisfied because it started the conversation about the ongoing problems that burden our sports clubs. Promotion of our country through sports is something we have to take into account."

The following conclusions were made today:

• Conference participants expressed a concern about the state of sports in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that it will be facing closure and severe crisis without government's involvement.
• All sports organizations are committed to fully implement and comply with legal regulations thourghout all levels of government, but in order to facilitate sports clubs' businesses, the laws governing the field of sports and sports clubs have to be amended. In that regard, the most important amendments would be related to the financial operations and organization of sports clubs.
• Fiscal reliefs for sports clubs and stimulating investment in sports are highly needed.
• Relevant state and entity institutions are in charge of these regulation amendments, but the conference participants are ready to make their full contributions through initiatives and specific proposals.
• It's proposed that the existing work group, appointed at an earlier meeting between FFBIH and BHT PL club representatives, to be expanded with the Olympic Committee representatives. This group should initiate the changes in legislation by the end of January next year, and contact the members of the relevant ministries.