Croatian Court orders 1 month detention for FC senior officials

Croatian football suffered a heavy blow after several of his senior officials ended up in custody on suspicions of tax evasion and corruption.

The Zagreb County Court on Sunday ordered a one-month remand prison for top officials of Croatian champion football club Dinamo, Zdravko Mamic and his brother Zoran Mamic, as well as Damir Vrbanovic, the executive president of the Croatian Football Association (HNS) after the Croatian Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) filed charges against them.

Zdravko Mamic severs as the executive director of FC Dinamo and also the executive vice president of HNS, while Zoran Mamic is the coach of FC Dinamo. Both of them were arrested yesterday.

They are suspected of having the help of a tax administrator, who is behind bars. The alleged offences cost football club Dinamo 117.8 million kunas (15.6 million euros) and the state budget for at least 12 million kunas (1.6 million euros).

In addition, Zdravko Mamic was suspected that he had secured the material gain of at least 52 million (6.9 million euros), and his brother Zoran 38.1 million kunas (five million euros).

Mamic brothers are allegedly pulling money over the transfer of one of the world's best players Luka Modric who once played in Dinamo, and now plays for Real Madrid, according to the reports of local newspaper Jutarnjilist.

In the same way they used transfers of several former players of Dinamo, the reports said.

Mamic brothers denied all the charges and said the investigations are political persecution. Their lawyers announced an appeal against the decision on their detention.

Although Zdravko Mamic is only executive vice president in HNS, he is considered the most powerful man in Croatian football. He is a controversial figure who is no stranger to frequent verbal outbursts in public, even physical clashes. Former Education Minister Zeljko Jovanovic sued him because of chauvinistic attacks.

Croatian authorities have already investigated him for a long time.