Local media have accused an Italian of acting as a ‘spy’ during the Bosnia and Herzegovina training session ahead of the World Cup play-off, Yahoo Sports reports.
It kicks off at the Stadion Bilino Polje in Zenica on Tuesday and a winner will be decided after 90 minutes, extra time or even a penalty shoot-out.
A place at the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and USA is at stake, so every detail could be crucial ahead of the big match.
This is why local newspaper Klixba claimed that an Italian spy had been identified at the training ground to film the players even after the 15 minutes that were open to the public.
However, Sportmediaset explain that this was no spy, but rather an Italian soldier whose base is close by to the training ground, so he simply wandered over to observe the situation.
He was by no means affiliated with Gennaro Gattuso and the Italy squad, so did not pass along any valuable information on the plans of the Bosnia squad.
Meanwhile, Italy would be hoping to avoid missing out on the World Cup for the third consecutive time, after failing to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 editions.
