Although Serbia is accepted by FIFA as the official successor of Yugoslavia, Bosnian players have played a role in World Cup history before their independence in 1992.
A notable early appearance of a Bosnian player at a FIFA World Cup was in 1962, when striker Arman Spahić broke an opponent's leg in a brutal foul.
More positively, several Bosnian players were part of the 1974 first team line-up that advanced from the group stage unbeaten and ahead of Brazil.
Striker Dušan Bajević scored three goals in one of the highest World Cup victories of all time: Yugoslavia's 9–0 against Zaire.
During qualifiers for 2010 World Cup Bosnia reached its first ever playoffs for a major tournament, though eventually losing to Portugal 2–0 on aggregate.