Bosnia adopts new statute to end FIFA ban

The Bosnian football federation (NSBIH) on Thursday adopted a new statute, a move expected to end FIFA and UEFA's suspension of the country from international competition.

"The federation's general assembly unanimously, with 55 votes, backed the new statute," Dino Begic, a member of a normalisation committee, set up by FIFA and tasked with running Bosnia football, said after the vote.

The six-men normalisation committee's main task was to convince local football officials, notably Serb, to back the new statute.

World governing body FIFA and European counterparts UEFA suspended Bosnia-Hercegovina from international and European football on April 1 after NSBIH failed to adopt the statute that would lead to a single-member presidency rather than the ethnic-based tripartite presidency -- consisting of a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb member.

At the time Serb and several Croat delegates opposed changes to the statute.

"I hope that FIFA and UEFA will lift the suspension as soon as possible, by May 31 at the latest, to enable the national squad to play against Romania on June 3, in Euro-2012 qualifier," NSBIH secretary general Jasmin Bakovic told AFP on the eve of the vote.

After the Romania match, Bosnia's next game for the 2012 European Championships to be held in Poland and Ukraine, is against Albania on June 7. Bosnia are playing in Group D and currently hold fourth position with five points less than leading France.

Since the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia consists of two entities -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska.

Apart from the joint football federation, founded in 2002, each semi-autonomous half also has a federation of its own.

The NSBIH general assembly has 60 delegates, 20 from each of Bosnia's three ethnic communities -- Croat, Muslim and Serb. A total of 55 took part in Thursday's vote.