Sport
Serbia: Police probe mafia links in major football graft scandal
Belgrade, 7 Dec. (AKI) – Serbian police are probing a major corruption scandal with suspected mob links that involves top first division football clubs. As part of the investigation, police arrested the secretary general of top Belgrade club Red Star, Zoran Damjanovic, on Friday.
Inspectors are reported to have been checking Red Star's books for several days after its fans seriously injured and beat a plainclothes policeman Nebojsa Trajkovic at a football match last Saturday, which was termed attempted murder. Three fans have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Almost all Serbian papers carried the football scandal story on their front pages on Friday. Matches are alleged to have been rigged, and millions of euros from the transfers of top players to have been illegally creamed off.
The new reports point to links between top football officials and organised crime.
At the center of the scandal is former Red Star president Dragan Stojkovic Piksi, who was forced to resign recently, and Damjanovic.
The media said the investigation has revealed that Piksi and Damjanovic may have engineered Saturday’s incident to create trouble for new Red Star president Toplica Spasojevic and his team.
Piksi, one of the most popular football stars in the former Yugoslavia, had played 85 matches for the national team and afterwards continued his career in France and Japan.
He has been accused by fans and sports commentators of selling top players to foreign clubs, using underworld figures as go-betweens and of sharing with them part of the transfer money.
After resigning as Red Star president, Piksi said he could no longer take the pressure, and would return to Japan as a coach.
Serbian football has been marginalised at the European level since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the national team has failed to qualify for next year's UEFA's European Football Championship.
Red Star, who in 1991 won UEFA's Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup, hit its lowest level in history recently, despite winning national championships.
It failed to qualify for the European Champions League and has so far lost all three matches in the UEFA Cup. Experts and sports commentators blame the poor results on indiscriminate selling of top players.
But Red Star is reportedly not the only 'black sheep' in the Serbian soccer fold. Red Star’s top rival, Belgrade Partizan, is next in line for the probe, but also some top officials of the Serbian Football Association.
“Top people of leading clubs and the Football Association are involved in money laundering, tax evasion and even white slavery,” said Belgrade daily Press, quoting police sources. The paper predicted further arrests.
Inspectors are reported to have been checking Red Star's books for several days after its fans seriously injured and beat a plainclothes policeman Nebojsa Trajkovic at a football match last Saturday, which was termed attempted murder. Three fans have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Almost all Serbian papers carried the football scandal story on their front pages on Friday. Matches are alleged to have been rigged, and millions of euros from the transfers of top players to have been illegally creamed off.
The new reports point to links between top football officials and organised crime.
At the center of the scandal is former Red Star president Dragan Stojkovic Piksi, who was forced to resign recently, and Damjanovic.
The media said the investigation has revealed that Piksi and Damjanovic may have engineered Saturday’s incident to create trouble for new Red Star president Toplica Spasojevic and his team.
Piksi, one of the most popular football stars in the former Yugoslavia, had played 85 matches for the national team and afterwards continued his career in France and Japan.
He has been accused by fans and sports commentators of selling top players to foreign clubs, using underworld figures as go-betweens and of sharing with them part of the transfer money.
After resigning as Red Star president, Piksi said he could no longer take the pressure, and would return to Japan as a coach.
Serbian football has been marginalised at the European level since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the national team has failed to qualify for next year's UEFA's European Football Championship.
Red Star, who in 1991 won UEFA's Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup, hit its lowest level in history recently, despite winning national championships.
It failed to qualify for the European Champions League and has so far lost all three matches in the UEFA Cup. Experts and sports commentators blame the poor results on indiscriminate selling of top players.
But Red Star is reportedly not the only 'black sheep' in the Serbian soccer fold. Red Star’s top rival, Belgrade Partizan, is next in line for the probe, but also some top officials of the Serbian Football Association.
“Top people of leading clubs and the Football Association are involved in money laundering, tax evasion and even white slavery,” said Belgrade daily Press, quoting police sources. The paper predicted further arrests.
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