Pahor made headlines by promising to shine the boots of Slovenia's team should it qualify for the 2010 World Cup in October. He made good on his promise in Maribor, but a video that was subsequently circulated by his party including shots of Pahor cheering for the team, then shining their boots and exchanging high-fives with its members has angered the footballers.
Captain Robert Koren and striker Milivoje Novakovic sent a statement to daily Dnevnik on Wednesday saying that they were "bothered by the fact that certain politicians follow us now, but when we started qualifications there was noone there."
It has also emerged that the team initially did not let Pahor enter the locker room for this reason. "This was our moment, which we wanted to saviour and not share with others." But the players later let the prime minister join them to fulfil his promise.
"Since the prime minister wanted to fulfil his promise of cleaning our shoes, we allowed him into the locker room a while later. We want to emphasise that members of the national team do not want to participate in political propaganda, which is why we ask that this be respected in the future," Koren and Novakovic said.
Pahor denied trying to steal the limelight or abusing the event for political purposes at a press conference on Wednesday. "You have to understand that the qualification to the World Cup is a piece of information of unparalleled global importance," he said, adding that as the prime minister he had the task of tapping into such a global promotion for Slovenia.
He stressed that he had attended all of the recent matches of the team and that he was a "fan at heart". He said that what mattered was the team's victory. "The team are the big winners in all of this," he said.
The prime minister's party also weighed in the debate on Friday, saying that the video was circulated only after it was authorised by all parties involved. "Only later was the video entitled 'Heart Beats for Slovenia' together published on the SD website."
SD spokesperson Denis Sarkic said that president of the National Football Association Ivan Simic, who had viewed the video before it was released, had approved it before it was released.
According to Sarkic, the video has been viewed by more than 320,000 people around the world, which shows the wide interest of the public at home and abroad in the Slovenian team.
Pahor's shoe shining performance has earned him the attention of domestic and global media. BBC ran a story on its international news site dedicated to the prime minister's feat headlined "Slovenia leader turns shoeshine boy after football win".
