Sports in Bosnia and Herzegovina

What sports are played in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The broadest countable source is the membership page of the Olimpijski komitet Bosne i Hercegovine, which prints no total. Under the heading for Olympic sports it runs from the Atletski savez BiH to the Veslački savez BiH, and includes the Nogometni/Fudbalski savez BiH, the Košarkaški savez BiH, the Rukometni savez BiH, the Odbojkaški savez BiH, the Džudo savez BiH and the Teniski savez BiH. Winter sports appear through federations for biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, luge, skating, skeleton and skiing.^[1] That covers football, basketball, handball, volleyball, judo, tennis, athletics, biathlon and skiing.

A second heading, for non-Olympic sports, lists among others the Karate savez BiH, the Kik boks savez BiH, the Šahovska unija BiH and the Esport savez BiH.^[1]

Article 2 of the Zakon o sportu u Bosni i Hercegovini states that sport “u smislu ovog Zakona, obuhvata” four things: competitive sporting activities, sport for health and recreation, “sportske aktivnosti organizirane za lica s invaliditetom” and “organizirani školski i univerzitetski sport”.^[2]

At the Olympic Winter Games, Olympedia records the country as competing in five disciplines: “Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, and luge”.^[3] A national top division with a sponsor's name runs in football, and clubs from the country play in the regional basketball league, as §4 sets out.

What is the most popular spectator sport in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

No completed-season attendance total for the top football division was retrieved from the federation or a statistics site. The one attendance figure available is a running count. Oslobođenje reported on 21 September 2026 that after eight rounds of the 2026/27 WWin liga BiH, matches had drawn “ukupno 137497 gledalaca, odnosno u prosjeku njih 3526 po utakmici”, with matches of Željezničar drawing 43,547 in total, 8,709 a match. The newspaper names no source for the figures; they rest on a single secondary source and cover part of a season that runs to May 2027.^[4][5]

The broadcast proxy is the public broadcaster's price list. BHRT's advertising and sponsorship tariff for BHT1, valid from 1 January 2026, places “utakmice reprezentacije BiH u košarci i rukometu” in its second sport category, domestic championship matches and skiing in the third, and prices “Utakmice reprezentacije BiH u fudbalu, Evropska i Svjetska prvenstva, Olimpijske igre” separately by special offer.^[6] The tariff publishes no audience figure.

Carriage of the national football team is itself dated news. N1 reported on 23 September 2026 that, according to UEFA's information, the team's UEFA Nations League matches were to be shown on BHT1 and MyTV, adding that “kada je riječ o BHT1, još postoji određena neizvjesnost”.^[7] N1 had reported on 16 September 2026 a statement by the editorial board of BHT1 that transmission of the team's Nations League matches was in question.^[8]

How is sport organised in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Article I(1) of the Constitution gives the state's name: “the official name of which shall henceforth be ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina,’”.^[9]

The state-level statute. The Zakon o sportu u Bosni i Hercegovini was published in “Službeni glasnik BiH” broj 27/08 and amended by laws in broj 102/09 and 66/16. The text read is the unofficial consolidated text (neslužbeni prečišćeni tekst) on the Parliamentary Assembly's site, whose footnote lists those three instruments and no later one.^[2] The Assembly publishes the same text in Croatian as the Zakon o športu u Bosni i Hercegovini.^[10] Article 1 opens: “Ovim Zakonom uređuje se sport u Bosni i Hercegovini, javni interes i ciljevi nadležnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, Republike Srpske i Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine (u daljnjem tekstu: entiteti), te Brčko Distrikta Bosne i Hercegovine i drugih nivoa administrativnog organiziranja”, and continues.^[2]

The bodies it creates or names. Article 59 states that “Nadležni organ za poslove sporta na nivou Bosne i Hercegovine je Ministarstvo civilnih poslova”, within which a sector for sport is established. Article 12 states that the Vijeće za sport Bosne i Hercegovine “najviše je savjetodavno tijelo Ministarstva civilnih poslova BiH”; under Article 13 it has 17 members appointed by the Vijeće ministara BiH on the proposal of the minister of civil affairs, with proposals divided between the ministry, the Olympic and Paralympic committees, the two entities and Brčko District. Article 61 reads “Ovim Zakonom osniva se Agencija za antidoping kontrolu”, as a samostalna upravna organizacija. Article 66 provides that the public interest in sport is met by co-financing “iz sredstava budžeta” of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[2] The agency states that it was founded under the law, that it is “jedina je državna agencija sa sjedištem u Tuzli”, and that it began work at the end of 2009.^[11]

Federations and the NOC under the statute. Article 22 provides that clubs in individual sports join together in sports federations, which “organiziraju se na nivou Bosne i Hercegovine i entiteta” and, depending on a sport's development, at other levels; one state-level savez may be founded per sport, on the entity federations' decisions on voluntary association. Article 23 makes the state-level savezi responsible for competition systems, international representation and national teams. Article 24 describes the Olimpijski komitet Bosne i Hercegovine as a “nevladino sportsko udruženje” acting under the Olympic Charter, the IOC's code of ethics, the Olympic Movement's anti-doping code, the Zajednička izjava iz Lozane, the state law on associations and foundations and this statute; Article 25 names its founders as the state-level federations of Olympic sports, elite athletes, experts and sports workers.^[2]

The entity level. The Zakon o sportu Republike Srpske, Sl. glasnik RS 79/2020, read in a legal database, opens “Ovim zakonom uređuju se sistem organizacije sporta i druga pitanja od značaja za sport u Republici Srpskoj”. It names the Ministarstvo porodice, omladine i sporta, and its Article 18 provides that republički sportski savezi exercise their international rights “samostalno ili preko sportskih saveza na nivou Bosne i Hercegovine i Olimpijskog komiteta Bosne i Hercegovine, a u skladu sa Zajedničkom izjavom iz Lozane o organizovanju sporta u Bosni i Hercegovini”.^[12][34] No text of a Federation-level sports statute was retrieved from an official source.

Recognition of the NOC. The committee states that it was founded on 4 June 1992; its history says it was, “kao pridruženi član, već 23. jula primljen pod okrilje Međunarodnog olimpijskog komiteta”, and records “punopravnog članstva u MOK-u 24. septembra 1993”.^[13] An NOC is recognised by the IOC; it is not a member of it. Olympedia records provisional IOC recognition on the eve of the 1992 Games and that “Full recognition was granted at the IOC session in Monte Carlo, on 24 September 1993.”^[3]

Football's structure, from its own statute. The statute of the Nogometni/Fudbalski savez Bosne i Hercegovine adopted on 12 July 2025, published in Latin and Cyrillic, states: “NS/FS BIH se trenutno sastoji od sljedeće dvije asocijacije”, the Nogometni savez Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine and the Fudbalski savez Republike Srpske. It provides for a President chosen at the Skupština, and states: “Predsjednika iz istog entitetskog saveza (NS FBiH ili FS RS) ne može se birati na više od tri uzastopna mandata.”^[14][15] The federation's members page lists cantonal and regional associations beneath the two.^[16] UEFA gives 1945 as the year the federation was founded, and 1996 and 1998 as the years of its affiliation to FIFA and to UEFA.^[17]

The 2011 suspension. UEFA reported on 1 April 2011 that the federation “has been suspended until further notice by FIFA and UEFA as of today, 1 April 2011”. The stated ground: “the general assembly of the NFSBiH did not adopt the statutes according to the FIFA and UEFA requirements”. UEFA records that both bodies' executive committees had set 31 March 2011 as the deadline, and that at the general assembly of 29 March 2011 “Only 22 out of the 54 delegates present voted in favour of amending the NFSBiH statutes.” Its representative and club teams were “no longer entitled to take part in international competitions as of 1 April 2011 and until the aforementioned problem is solved”.^[18] On 12 April 2011 FIFA's Emergency Committee appointed a six-person normalisation committee, taking over the powers of the executive committee and presidency, with a first deadline of 26 May 2011 to convene a general assembly to adopt statutes.^[19] UEFA reported on 30 May 2011 that the federation's general secretary had confirmed that the new statutes were “duly adopted by the general assembly at its meeting in Sarajevo on 26 May”; that “at its meeting in London on 28 May, the UEFA Emergency Panel decided to lift the suspension”; and that the FIFA Executive Committee confirmed the lifting at a meeting in Zurich on 30 May, the date of the release.^[20]

What are the main domestic leagues and competitions?

The federation's site names the top men's football division “WWIN LIGA BIH”, beside “KUP BiH (M)” and the women's “Premijer liga BiH (Ž)”.^[21] Its propositions for 2026/27 schedule the first round for 8 August 2026 and the 36th for 30 May 2027, so the season is running on 24 September 2026. They provide that the two lowest-placed clubs are relegated at the end of 2026/27, and that for 2026/27 the league was filled “prvakom iz NS Federacije BiH i prvakom iz FS Republike Srpske koja ispunjavaju kriterije u postupku licenciranja”.^[5] Promoted clubs thus come from the champions of the two entity associations' competitions; the public broadcaster RTRS carried a report headed “Прва лига Српске” on 23 September 2026.^[22]

In basketball, clubs play in a regional competition run across several countries. The ABA League's site uses the name AdmiralBet ABA League, and its 2026/27 regular-season table, in two groups, lists Igokea m:tel, HKK Široki TT Kabeli and Bosna BH Telecom among its clubs; the league's club pages place them in Aleksandrovac, Široki Brijeg and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^{[23][31][32][33]} No name or sponsor for a national basketball or handball championship was retrieved from a federation source.

How has Bosnia and Herzegovina performed at the Olympic Games?

Olympedia files the country under the code BIH. Its participation table runs from the 1992 Summer Games, with 10 athletes, to the 2026 Winter Games, with 5, and every row typed as an Olympic Games edition, Summer or Winter, shows no medal. Olympedia prints no totals row.^[3]

The only medal rows on the page are typed as Youth Olympic Games, which are not Olympic Games: one bronze at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics and one silver at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. Its Youth Olympic Games medal table by sport carries the same two medals, a silver in judo and a bronze in tennis.^[3]

Results before 1992 are filed by Olympedia under Yugoslavia, code YUG, whose narrative states that “Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina competed independently from 1992 on.”^[24] Those YUG rows are filed under a different code and none of them is counted here. The same applies to the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, which Olympedia lists under the host “Sarajevo, Yugoslavia”.^[25]

Olympedia's narrative adds that at the Games of 1992 to 1998 only athletes from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina competed, and that “from 2000 onwards athletes from Republika Srpska also participated”; for the Winter Games it gives 2002 as the first such edition.^[3]

Which athletes and teams are internationally recognised?

In football, UEFA records that the men's team finished as runners-up in Group H of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, then won play-offs against Wales, 1-1 and 4-2 on penalties, and Italy, 1-1 and 4-1 on penalties.^[26] At the finals the team played Canada, Switzerland and Qatar in Group B and finished third; UEFA lists the round-of-32 result on 2 July, in CET, as “United States 2-0 Bosnia and Herzegovina”.^[26]

The same UEFA record gives the country's first World Cup as 2014, where the team lost to Argentina and Nigeria and won its last group match 3-1 against Iran.^[26]

In athletics, World Athletics reported on 1 October 2019 that Amel Tuka “accelerated through to claim silver in a season's best of 1:43.47” in the men's 800 m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. The same report states that he had won the world bronze in Beijing four years earlier.^[27]

What major international competitions has Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted?

The XIV Olympic Winter Games were held in Sarajevo from 8 to 19 February 1984, when the city was part of Yugoslavia. Olympedia records that the Games were awarded at the 80th IOC Session in Athens on 18 May 1978, that Sarajevo trailed Sapporo 31 to 33 in the first round with Gothenburg on 10, and that it won the second round 39 to 36. It gives 49 nations and 1,273 athletes.^[25] Olympedia files that edition's host country as Yugoslavia. The Olympic committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which dates its own founding to 1992, describes the Games in its own history as “Četrnaeste Zimske olimpijske igre 1984. u Sarajevu”.^[13]

The European Olympic Committees' winter European Youth Olympic Festival of 2019 was held in Sarajevo and East Sarajevo. The EOC's report of 11 February 2019 describes it as “the 14th edition of the Winter EYOF”, with flag bearers from “each of the 46 European National Olympic Committees with athletes participating”, and states that “The cauldron will remain lit until the end of the EYOF on 15 February.”^[28] Both events are completed.

What are Bosnia and Herzegovina's main sporting rivalries?

The documented recurring fixture is the Sarajevo derby between FK Željezničar and FK Sarajevo. Oslobođenje previewed the 160th derby, played at Grbavica on 9 September 2026, with the record: “Obje ekipe imaju po 48 pobjeda, uz identičnu gol-razliku”. The paper names no source for the count, so it rests on a single secondary source and is not a federation's record; it publishes no draw figure.^[29] Oslobođenje reported the same evening that Željezničar won the 160th derby.^[30]

For the national team's fixtures with the live sibling pages Croatia and Serbia, no head-to-head record from a federation or statistics source could be retrieved, and none is given here.

What is the role of school and university sport?

School and university sport sits inside the statute's definition of sport. Article 2 of the state-level Zakon o sportu lists, as the last of four items, “organizirani školski i univerzitetski sport”.^[2]

No programme, competition calendar or participation figure from a national or entity school-sport body was retrieved from an official source, so no figure is given.

Were any sports invented in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

No federation, government instrument or standard reference retrieved makes a claim that a sport was invented or codified in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The state-level Zakon o sportu, in the consolidated text read, contains no provision designating a national sport.^[2]

The sports it does name are those of its federations, and the Olympic committee's lists divide them into Olympic and non-Olympic sports without any claim of origin.^[1]