The ruling came eight days after the controversial Croatian Cup semifinal.
The HNS disciplinary committee, headed by Ivica Kujundžić, punished Rijeka captain Filip Bradarić with a three-game ban after the controversial Croatian Cup semifinal where Dinamo defeated Rijeka 3:0, reports Goal.hr on April 12, 2018.
Bradarić was disqualified in the 47th minute for a second yellow card, and after the game, he approached head referee Marijo Zebec, taking the ball from his hand and said: “Shame on you, you’re trash!”
Referee Zebec reported Bradarić, who was punished by the Disciplinary Commission with a ban of three games. As he already missed Rijeka's visit to Koprivnica, Bradarić will also miss out two more meetings when Rijeka is first a guest at Rudeš, followed by a game in Pula against Istria 1961.
The captain, therefore, returns to the pitch in nine days against Osijek when Rijeka finally comes back to Rujevica for a home game. The match between Dinamo and Rijeka took place on April 4, and the sanctions were settled after eight days. Hajduk, on the other hand, was punished immediately for the upside-down HNS flag spotted at Poljud during the Lokomotiva game last weekend.
"I do not know how footage travels today, but it obviously takes a lot of time to get to those that have to decide. And, of course, it takes time to look at the situation,” said a sarcastic Rijeka coach, Matjaz Kek, who commented about the sanction taking over a week from the semifinal game to the decision of the ultimate penalty, therefore keeping Rijeka in the dark about whether or not they would be able to count on their best player.
Otherwise, after the Dinamo and Rijeka duel, there was a lot of controversy surrounding Zebec’s questionable calls throughout the game.
Even though there were two assistant referees and two additional officials during the match, this group of officials had four massive errors in judgement - three at the expense of Rijeka and one for Dinamo.
The 37th minute saw the first instance the officials damaged Rijeka. Rijeka’s Heber made a run towards the goal, and when Heber was passed the ball, the officials called a non-existent offside. Heber was, as we could see in the replay, entirely in line with the Dinamo defenders. There was no offside call to be had.
The poor judgement continued one minute before the half when the officials missed calling a penalty for Dinamo. Soudani pulled a counterattack and found Doumbia, who fired a shot from 20 meters. 10 meters from the goal, the ball hit the elbow of Bradarić, which saw no handball call.
Immediately in the second half, and precisely in the second minute, another detrimental mistake was made by the officials when Bradarić was given an unjustified second yellow card. The Rijeka captain went into a clean duel for the ball with Dinamo’s Perić, after which there was apparent yet unintentional contact between the two players. Zebec was quick to give Bradarić his second yellow of the match, forcing the player off the pitch. Rijeka then had to play the rest of the game with ten men.
In the 71st minute, Rijeka came to realize that their dreams of the Croatian Cup final were over, and it was easy to see why after this final lapse in judgement. After a weak header by Dinamo’s Sosa reached Rijeka’s Acosty, the Rijeka midfielder raced towards the goal in hopes of equalization. Not even one meter before the penalty area, Acosty was taken down by Stojanović. Interestingly, Dinamo's right defender already had a yellow card, and instead, Zebec looked at Acosty and delivered him a yellow card for diving. No penalty call, and no second yellow for Stojanović.
This final act of the refereeing disaster at Maksimir gifted Dinamo a place in the Cup final, and the Zagreb club went on to score goals in the 80th and 83rd minute for a 3-0 victory.
