Bosnia accuses Italy of spying on World Cup playoffs

Local media accused an Italian of acting as a “spy” during Bosnia and Herzegovina’s training before the World Cup playoffs, Yahoo Sports reports.

It starts on Tuesday at the Stadion Bilino Polje in Zenica and the winner will be decided after 90 minutes, extra time or even a penalty shoot-out.

A place for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States is at stake, so every detail could be crucial ahead of the big game.

For this reason, local newspaper Klixba claimed that an Italian spy had been identified at the training ground to film the players even after the 15 minutes they were open to the public.

However, Sportmediaset explains that it was not a spy, but an Italian soldier whose base is near the training ground, so he simply approached to observe the situation.

He was in no way related to Gennaro Gattuso or the Italian national team, so he did not convey any valuable information about the Bosnian national team’s plans.

Meanwhile, Italy would seek to avoid missing the World Cup for the third consecutive time, after failing to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 editions.