World Cup 2026: Why doesn't the Bosnian anthem have lyrics?

Bosnia and Herzegovina players line up during the playing of the national anthems before the opening match of the 2026 World Cup.
REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Anyone following the match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Switzerland in the second round of the 2026 World Cup this Thursday (18) may end up noticing something unusual: the Bosnian anthem has no official lyrics, just instrumental.
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Since 1999, the country has adopted an instrumental melody known as Intermeco, but has never managed to approve a text to accompany it.
The reason lies in the political and ethnic divisions that mark the recent history of the nation, made up mainly of Bosnians, Serbs and Croats.
After the end of the Bosnian War, in the years 1990, different proposals for lyrics were presented to Parliament, but none received sufficient support among representatives of the three groups.
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The main obstacle is that any reference to a single national identity tends to generate resistance, as part of the population identifies first and foremost with their ethnic or religious origin.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is governed by a political system created by the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in 1995 and divided power between Muslim Bosnians, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. Therefore, finding words that equally represent all groups has become a challenge.
As a result, Bosnia and Herzegovina has become one of the few countries in the world whose national anthem does not have official lyrics, including at international sporting events.
The other countries that do not have lyrics in the national anthem are:
Kosovo;
San Marino; and
Spain

Source: G1