Bosnia-Herzegovina was suspended from football by FIFA and UEFA yesterday and threatened with expulsion from the 2012 European Championship.

The ban on Bosnia’s national and club teams playing internationally was imposed because its football federation is split on ethnic lines and refused requests to replace a three-member presidency with a single leader.

“FIFA and UEFA deeply regret that this decision had to be taken,” the governing bodies said in a joint statement.

They will meet soon “to discuss the next steps required to try to bring (Bosnia) back into the football family as soon as possible.”

FIFA could install an emergency panel to run the federation’s affairs and allow Bosnia’s teams, referees and officials to work internationally.

In recent years, the world body has appointed so-called “normalisation committees” with mandates of up to 12 months in El Salvador, Kuwait, Senegal and Samoa.

Bosnian football is run on similar lines to its politics, and the federation’s presidency is shared by a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb.

The situation was tolerated because FIFA and UEFA were aware of Bosnia’s political problems and ethnic divisions after the 1992-95 war.

Last October, the executive committees of FIFA and UEFA set Bosnia a March deadline to modernise its statutes or a suspension would be automatically triggered.

At a meeting in Sarajevo on Tuesday, Bosnian Serbs opposed the single president plan because they fear it could jeopardize their autonomy.

“Consequently, the (Bosnian federation) has lost all of its membership rights with immediate effect and until further notice,” FIFA said.

Bosnia is scheduled to resume its Euro 2012 programme on 3 June in Romania, which it beat 2-1 in Zenica last Saturday, and host Albania on 7 June. It has never appeared at a major tournament as an independent team.

UEFA has not officially discussed options for Euro 2012 if Bosnia cannot fulfill its matches, but could expel the team and wipe its results from the Group D records.