Two soccer officials removed from UEFA due to criminal cases

A soccer official of the Croatian team is being sentenced to prison due to corruption linked with the transfer of Luka Modric from the committee by overseeing the European Championship. This is said by the UEFA this Friday.

Damir Vrbanovic lost one appeal in the last week against a three-year sentence and his conviction in Croatia’s supreme court ruling.

The former executive Croatia soccer federation and Dinamo Zagreb, Vrbanovic, was again reappointed to the National Team Competitions Committee by the UEFA during the year 2019 at the same time awaiting the appeal the previous year against the conviction.

UEFA is also known to remove Serbia, Slavisa Kozeka, from the committee by overseeing the total number of fifty-five European member federations.

The head of Serbian soccer, Kozeka, resigned last Monday after he was being linked to one of his fan groups to organized crime by the alleged ties.

According to the soccer body of Europe, they are not the existing members of the respective standing committees of UEFA. in the case of Croatia, and the conviction was known to be upheld for the coach of the Dinamo Zagreb, Zoran Mamic.

He resigned two days prior, the coach’s team beat Tottenham so that they can reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League last week. 

The case that was related embezzled millions of dollars from the Dinamo players transfers abroad that included Modric to Tottenham in the year 2008 and 2010 from Dejan Lovern to Lyon.  In 2018 both of the players testified in court, and they were accused of perjury as well.

The verdicts were led ahead of one week by the embezzlement trial, which was held in Croatia ahead of the year 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The vice president of the Soccer federation, Zdravko Mamic, is known to have fled to Bosnia-Herzegovina before he was sentenced to prison for 6 ½ years.

Davor Suker,  the federation president, had a close ally with Miami. Davor is the former Real Madrid and Dinamo forward, who was also a member of UEFA’s executive committee since the year 2015.

Modric was captaining the Croatia team despite all the turmoil. He captained the entire team along with Lovern in defence, losing 4-2 in the World Cup final against France. The best player for 2018 in the world was voted in favour of Modric. Vrbanovic made the headlines of the tournament as Croatia’s soccer body’s convicted director-general. He was seen sitting at the quarter-finals in the VIP section against Russia. In the same row, Dmitry Medvedev, then-Prime Minister of Russia and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the then-president of Croatia. 

FIFA, later on, said that there were no such restrictions on Vrbanovic as there was no finalization of the conviction, which was under the appeal. As being the former Dinamo executive, the founding member in 2008 was Vrbanovic of the European Club Association.