Celtic’s Champions League opponents FK Sarajevo have a familiar face in charge in the boardroom. They are majority owned by Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan after he bought the club in December 2013.
The Malaysian has stakes is four football clubs across the globe, with Sarajevo seen as his second project alongside Cardiff. He pledged $2million into the club when he joined and has since taken them onto new heights both on and off the pitch.
Sarajevo are the current Bosnian champions and also the biggest club in the country. Tan’s involvement shows that Celtic should be wary when coming up against them at the start of July.
A step up
Sarajevo are likely to offer us a tougher challenge than any of our previous first opponents. In recent years, we’ve eased to victory against the likes of KR Reykjavik, Alashkert and Linfield in our first tie of the new season.
These opening matches are often seen as a bye for the club, and a chance for our players to get their fitness and match sharpness up. Although we’ll still be favourites against the Bosnians, it looks an altogether different task.
The first leg, at home, will give Neil Lennon’s men the chance to kill the tie off. Not many of the Sarajevo players will have played in front of a 60,000 crowd before – although they did earn a very credible 2-2 draw away to Atalanta last year.
They will fancy their chances on home soil if they can narrow the damage in Glasgow. The pressure will very much be on Celtic from the get-go in this tie. We will be expected to turn the Bosnians over but that’s easier said than done. This year’s Champions League challenge is going to start tough and get even tougher as the rounds go on.
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