Today’s word of the day is rich. When we look at the Macedonian football landscape, we see a rich history from which the clubs come from. From the steep downfalls and comebacks of clubs like Tikvesh and Bashkimi, the trophy-laden cabinets of both Vardar and Shkendija and even the stories of small towns overachieving like Besa 1976 or Horizont Turnovo.
Of course, none of that success would have come to any of these teams without the driving force for everything in our world: money. Unfortunately, Macedonian football lacks the money to succeed, and as such many football clubs barely have enough to go by from season to season. Clubs like Pobeda, Karaorman, Napredok Kichevo and many more being victims to high amounts of debt, whilst many others also lack the necessary facilities to give talent their best shot at making it to the very top.
With all these historic teams fall down the pyramid, it is natural for teams who have the money to compete at those levels to replace them. We mentioned Besa and Horizont as small town clubs that had overachieved, but we neglected to look at who financed them. Besa’s recent rise up to the 1MFL has been helped by the Tahiri family, who have been funding their hometown club from abroad. Likewise to them, Horizont’s rise was funded by businessman Orce Todorov who guided them to nine consecutive seasons of top flight football from 2008 to 2017.
Voska Sport’s short history
Amongst the most recent clubs to have joined the Macedonian top flight is Voska Sport, who only just competed in their first ever 1MFL campaign by finishing 9th out of twelve teams. The Ohrid club was founded in 2019 by local businessman Nefi Useini, who is steeped with enough controversies that we will get onto later.
The club would use Useini’s money to its advantage and would make quick work of both the municipal leagues and the 3MFL. The Swans would stumble at the 2MFL after losing to Tikvesh in a promotion playoff, but they would eventually climb up to the top flight after winning the 2022/23 2MFL season.
Once Voska had gotten to the 1MFL, it was very clear that the clubs immediate goals would be to get European football off the bat. The club immediately ousted manager Berat Imeri and brought in Miljan Radović, who had managed some of Montenegro’s best sides. Along with him came the signings of Aleksa Marušić, Nikola Stijepović, Besar Iseni, Nikolche Sharkoski and many more. With only a few exceptions like Xhemil Jahiji, it was a complete rebuild of the team that came before it.
A rather disappointing 2023/24 season
If European football was the goal, Voska ending up closer to relegation than they were to the European places would be considered nothing short of a disaster. And yet that was the Swans’ reality last season. After a poor first half season, Radović was removed from his position in favor of the more acquainted Srgjan Zaharievski. The squad was also not spared in the winter, as once again Voska signed a new batch of players which would fit the new managers style.
Results under Srgjan improved, but it proved to be too late to salvage anything in the league. However Voska still had one more chance, the Macedonian Cup. The Ohrid side had already beaten Karbinci, Struga, Bregalnica and Makedonija GjP on route to the final where they would face off against Tikvesh. The two clubs already had some history with Tikvesh denying the Swans of a third successive promotion back in 2022, however what followed in Skopje was unprecedented.
The final was, in no uncertain terms, a complete mess for Voska. For the entire 90 minutes they looked completely lost as Tikvesh played around them like a fiddle. When the final whistle blew and the Red and White were crowned the champions, no one was left surprised. Srgjan Zaharievski had underestimated his opponent and it meant that Voska would not have their desired European football that they wanted. The match however also showed the footballing world another thing that was already apparent, that being Voska’s lack of support.
No one likes Voska
Football clubs across the world are built upon the roots of their local area. This is no different in Macedonia, where many of the clubs tend to vary based on the ethnic backgrounds they lean towards. Voska in this regard is a huge outlier. It is an Albanian-centric club located in a town that is majority Macedonians, with Albanians making up less than 10% of Ohrid’s population. With their already limited reach, Voska we’re always going to find it tough to gather support.
This isn’t to say a club like Voska can’t form its own fanbase. Looking at their crosstown neighbors in FC Struga and you’ll find that they have comfortably established themselves as the towns main representative, despite the club only being founded in 2015 by the local company Trim-Lum. As the Reds celebrated their second 1MFL title, the streets of Struga filled up to celebrate what felt like an achievement meant for the town rather than any certain ethnic group.
In direct contrast, the support or lack of it that Voska was able to muster for a cup final was both shocking and unsurprising. Below you can see images from the crowds I took during my time at the final. The huge disparity between a club that represents its town and a club that represents a single individual is clear as day.
Speaking of said individual, Nefi Useini’s presence and ownership of Voska Sport is enough of a turn off for many people who are well versed in Macedonian politics. Useini has been linked to the construction of many illegal buildings within Ohrid that have threatened the town’s certification as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with acts of assault, bribery and threats against anyone who speaks ill of him.
To put it lightly, Voska Sport is a club that represents what is wrong with Macedonian football from the most fundamental level. Many clubs across the pyramid exist solely to boost the egos of their owners who live with superiority and savior complexes. The only difference between them and Voska is that they at least have the recourses to get to the 1MFL. At least that was the case up until now.
Where to from here?
As of recent, news has come out about the dire state that Voska finds themselves in going into the new season. Reports suggest that funding for the club has been slashed and all players and staff have been allowed to leave and look for new clubs. This would leave Voska with a squad of under-19s to begin the new 1MFL and will most likely mean the end for their organization as a whole.
The only announcement that Voska have given since their cup defeat has been that they will be beginning preparations for the new season under newly appointed manager Seit Kreka. Whilst I don’t doubt that Seit can do his job, its concerning that his only coaching experience has come as a youth coach for Flamurtari Radolishta and as manager of former 3MFL side Young Team. Time will tell if he can get much of such a limited squad and circumstances.
To end this article, I would like to leave you off with a quote I once had from a video I made about football in Prilep, almost two years ago:
…Even with clubs like Struga, Renova or Voska. Clubs either owned by rich businessmen or companies with money to give. How long will they last in the heights of the Macedonian football pyramid until even they collapse?
Although Struga have gone on to succeed, it was only a few months later, Renova would withdraw from the 1MFL and would begin life from scratch in the municipal leagues. It is hard to foresee Voska doing the same as the Dzhepchishte based side, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually become a distant relic of a bygone era in Macedonian football. Then again, who would actually care if they went away?
