Bosnia-Herzegovina manager Sergei Barbarez has refused to apologise to Brondby’s Welsh boss Steve Cooper for his controversial comments ahead of Thursday’s World Cup play-off in Cardiff.
Barbarez had accused Cooper of dropping midfielder Benhamin Tahirovic from the Danish side in the build up to this week’s qualifier, something Brondby officials denied.
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Tahirovic is understood to have since contacted Cooper to apologise, but asked if he would follow suit Barbarez said: “I don’t think I should apologise for anything.”
Instead, the former Bosnia-Herzegovina striker hinted he had deliberately created the headlines to deflect attentions away from the 23-year-old former Roma and Ajax player.
“The only important thing for me is that I trust my players and the idea of all this was to create a puzzle for you so you can think about all these things,” said Barbarez.
“I had the idea to protect the player. That’s where all this talking was from.
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“I’ve known Benjamin for the last two years, and I know what a good player he is and how he can be.
“So I think we should concentrate on tomorrow’s match, which is the most important thing for both teams.”
Bellamy had laughed off the surreal subplot earlier in the day, adding he had not spoken to former Swansea City, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City boss Cooper since he was appointed Brondby boss in September 2025.
Brondby’s communications director Soren Hanghoj rejected Barbarez’s claim and said the player’s omission was a “club decision”, adding: “And there are not that many Wales fans in Brondby after all.”
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There will, though, be a sizeable contingent of Bosnian fans who make the trip to Cardiff City Stadium with their side needing to beat Wales to remain on track reach only their first World Cup since 2014.
The winners in south Wales on Thursday are guaranteed a home final against the winners of Italy or Northern Ireland on Tuesday, 31 March.
Ranked 71st in the world, they were edged out of automatic qualification by Austria when they conceded late in a final group game decider in Vienna.
“We cannot compare these two games, against Wales and Austria,” said Barbarez.
“We took some conclusion from the Austria game and we have spoken about it for three days about the experience we have taken from it.
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“We have a plan and every eventuality is covered, including penalties and extra time. We are optimistic. These are the games you play football for.”
The 40-year-old former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko is among the squad that have travelled to Cardiff, though is not guaranteed to start.
His Schalke teammate Nikola Katic, formerly of Rangers and Plymouth Argyle, added: “The atmosphere these kind of matches here is always brilliant and we will give our best.
“This is a serious team we are playing against, but we will play our own game and we are prepared for every eventuality.
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“We have not had much success as a nation in the play-offs before but that is not important for us; it is new for a lot of our players and our team is much stronger than previous sides.”
