The EURO 2016 may be over for Croatia, but there’s never a boring day in Croatian football and while the public is still entertained with the failure of team manager Cacic, more important things are going on behind closed doors.
EURO 2016 is over for the Croatia largely due to the incompetence of the team manager who was installed by the Croatian Football Federation officials, and they have much bigger problems to deal with than what’s in store for their beloved coach. On June 30. 2016, we bring you the never ending story of Croatian Football.
While the Croatian public is entertained with the fate of Ante Cacic, who never showed any sign of regret because of his failure, instead he decided to call out some former and current ministers in his interviews, football officials who are supposed to decide on his future are now facing new criminal charges.
News broke out in Switzerland, according to Neue Luzerner Zeitung, claiming Swiss authorities have launched an investigation regarding questionable financial transactions relating to transfers that involve Zdravko Mamic.
Just to remind you, we wrote about Zdravko Mamic on several occasions and the fact he was accused of embezzling more than 30 million Euros. Even though his attorney claims it all looks like a media spin, the same news was published by the Swiss national television with the confirmation from the Obwalden region State attorney.
And while the whole world is appalled by the fact that people accused of criminal activities rule Croatian football, which is something Croatian football fans and independent media have been warning about for months, minister of sport Predrag Sustar have started his own Saving Private Mamic mission.
According to T-portal, and also confirmed by the Ministry’s official website, the Ministry has started proceedings to change the Sport Act, the one that has been ignored for months because of the very same Ministry.
They are trying to change provisions and regulations (that are still valid) which prevent people like Zdravko Mamic from working within any sport organisation. Same regulations also require all sport associations to make their financial records public.
Whilst the latest move by the ministry is nothing short of scandalous, what is even more problematic is the fact that this government fell with the PM no confidence vote, meaning that Sustar is now a technical minister who does not have the authority or the mandate to change any existing laws.
Croatian independent media have been investigating Zdravko Mamic’s links to highly ranked Croatian politicians for years, and in the meantime, his brother, Zoran Mamic, also accused in the same trial that is due to start in Osijek, left his post as the head coach of Dinamo to manage a team in Saudi Arabia.
The first thing we checked after this particular news broke surprising all football fans in Croatia was whether Saudi Arabia has an extradition agreement with Croatia. And, guess what- it doesn’t!
The action of Minister Sustar provoked outrage even within his own party, as Split branch of HDZ has published the media release calling upon him to revoke this motion. They see this as an attempt to help only those in power at the CFF, and feel that the matter should be resolved only after the new elections.
It is a rare case in Croatian politics to see members of one party to oppose the higher ranked officials, and even though in the pre-election time many odd things happen, this abuse of power to help particular interests of just a few persons is unprecedented.
To conclude the article, it is worth noticing the lack of outrage by the national media regarding this matter. An odd fact, given that this is much more scandalous than the few flares thrown to the pitch during the Croatia – Czech Republic game.
