Shiroki Brijeg is a football club based in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the best in the country, however, he has not yet been able to achieve any particular success in the international arena. “Shiroki Brijeg” today occupies the third place in the championship of his country and may well compete for the championship.
What was first?
It should be noted right away that the Shiroki Brijeg team did not exist as such until 1991. The fact is that it was called "Lishtitsa Mladost" and belonged to the Yugoslav league, as long as a country like Yugoslavia existed. And only in 1991 the club was renamed, and the countdown of its modern history began, which will be discussed in this article.
You will learn about the successes of Shiroki Brijeg when he was in the First League of the Republika Srpska, and also that he was able to show when the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was finally established and the team began to play in the modern league that exists to this day.
First successes
Naturally, when Yugoslavia collapsed, many forgot about football. “Shiroki Brijeg” was no exception, but when everyone started to play again, the club began to quickly gain ground and show good results. In 1994, the first historical event happened. It was then that the team won their first championship, which was then the First League of the Republika Srpska.
For five consecutive years, the club became the strongest in its region, gaining the respect of opponents even abroad. And only in 2000, FC Shiroki Brieg was able to take part in the full championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's time to take a look at what successes he managed to achieve there.
Club achievements in modern times
Unfortunately, the players could not repeat such an amazing success. The fact is that the championship has become more organized, a large number of strong opponents have appeared in it, so the competition has intensified. As a result, the club was able to win its first trophy only in 2004. Then he won the Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but did not stop there.
In 2006, he repeated his former success, but, unfortunately, this was the last time the team managed to climb to the first line of the tournament table. After that, the club four times finished second and once third, but never received the coveted trophy.
However, there is another tournament that you should definitely pay attention to - this is the domestic Cup of the country. His club won for the first time in 2007, that is, a year after the last victory in the championship. Six years after this, the club was left without trophies at all, until it was able to win the Bosnia and Herzegovina Cup again. Well, the team won their last trophy recently, this year. In addition, over these 17 years, the team was able to reach the final of the tournament four times, but lost there.
Performances in the European arena
Twice in its history, the club was able to reach the final stage of the European tournament. In 2002, he was selected in a match with the Slovak club Senec, but was knocked out in the first round of the UEFA Cup by Czech Sparta. And in 2005, he defeated the Albanian “Teuta” and “Zeta” from Serbia and Montenegro in the qualifying rounds, but lost to the Swiss “Basel” in the first round of the playoffs. Naturally, these were far from all attempts. These two cases are outstanding, as the club was able to reach the final stage of the European tournament.
But for 17 years, the team 13 times participated in the qualification rounds for various European tournaments. In 2004 and 2006 it was even the Champions League, but in the first case the club lost to Neftchi from Baku, and in the second it beat the Soligorsk Shakhtar, but lost to the Heart of Midlothian from Edinburgh. In general, the club’s European history is quite rich and eventful, and in the future it will try to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs.