Goalkeeper Dejan Iliev, who withdrew with an alleged injury from the Macedonian U21 national team, was on the bench for Arsenal U21 in their game today against West Brom U21.

Arsenal’s website made no mention of an injury to Dejan Iliev.  Instead, in the match report recapping today’s game against West Brom U21, it was mentioned that the Arsenal U21 manager decided to drop Iliev to the bench and start Matthew Macey in goal.  Arsenal U21 won 1:0 over West Brom U21 with Iliev spending the entire 90 minutes on the bench as the #2 keeper. 

Even though he didn’t play, it’s obvious that Iliev is not injured if he was able to make the bench.  He was the lone keeper there and would have entered the match if Macey had to exit with either an injury or a red card.

The Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) should take note and discipline players who lie about being injured to avoid international duty.  Who knows, maybe the three withdrawn players could have helped Macedonia U21 avoid a 2:1 defeat against Norway U21 two days ago. 

This is a follow up to the article that we wrote last Thursday that showed that two other U21 call-ups, Valmir Nafiu and Eldis Bajrami, also played for their respective club teams while withdrawing from the U21 national team with alleged injuries.

Regardless of the clubs they play for, if these players do not want to represent Macedonia internationally, then FFM should move on and select players that will proudly wear the Macedonian colors.  Playing for a national team is a privilege, not a right.

We live in an internet age where it is increasingly difficult to keep such things secret.  Eventually, things will come to light as more teams place emphasis on their websites and social media to keep its fans informed about the latest happenings within the club.

It is unfortunate that the three players shunned the U21 national team with lies about being injured.  It is also disrespectful, especially for Iliev and Nafiu.  Those two guys signed with Arsenal (Iliev) and Hamburg* (Nafiu) in part because they formerly played for the U17 and U19 national teams.  Most of the scouting by foreign clubs took place while they played for the youth national teams.  Bajrami, on the other hand, was born in Austria so you could understand if his top preference is to ultimately play for the Austrian national team.

* Note: Nafiu first transferred from Shkendija to Basel before later moving to German club Hamburg.