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Post by radovic on Dec 7, 2007 11:59:18 GMT -5
Police arrest 3 members of Red Star board 7 December 2007 | 11:25 -> 15:35 | Source: B92, Tanjug BELGRADE -- Police launched an operation this morning to arrest members of the board of Red Star FC.
B92 has learned that the club's secretary general, Zoran Damjanoviæ, security commissioner Novica Mijuškoviæ and stadium director Miodrag Æoroviæ are all in custody this afternoon.
They will be charged in connection to a brutal assault on a Gendarmerie inspector during a game at the Red Star stadium in Belgrade last Sunday.
Yesterday, reports emerged that police were looking into ties between the club management and criminal groups in the capital.
Our sources with the MUP say that police are also investigating that angle of the case, but no arrests have so far been made over connections that the club management allegedly has with narco bosses.
A smiling Damjanoviæ was arrested in front of the Football Association of Serbia premises, by several plain clothes policemen who arrived in an obsolete Zastava car with civilian license plates.
The MUP is now looking at some of the multi-million euro transfers conducted in the past.
The Red Star board announced yesterday that the authorities regularly monitored the club’s dealings, and that they had always provided them with the relevant information concerning their affairs.
“A standard review of Red Star’s dealings is under way by the authorities, and the club, as they have up to now, has shown its willingness and openness to make all the relevant data concerning its operations and contracts available for assessment,” it was stated on the club’s website.
Mišiæ hits Tajkoviæ with a lit flare (FoNet)
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old detained earlier this week, one of the four direct perpetrators of the shocking violence in the stands, identified as Uroš Mišiæ, was today placed in custody for 30 days.
Mišiæ is suspected of aggravated attempted murder on an officer on duty. He was among the group of hooligans, that the police now believe are controlled by the club, who on Dec. 2 identified Nebojša Trajkoviæ as a policemen, and attacked him with broken chairs and lit flares.
At one point, the suspect tried to force a burning flare in the officer's mouth.
Trajkoviæ, who is recovering from serious injuries, was forced to shoot in the air in a bid to fend off his attackers.
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Post by radovic on Dec 7, 2007 12:05:09 GMT -5
Police to control football transfers Young players slaves of football mafia Author: Blic staff | 07.12.2007 - 06:00
Serbian police is currently investigating player transfers completed at Red Star, Vojvodina, affairs of the Serbian FA, as well as sponsoring contracts. It has not yet been disclosed whether the documents contain any irregularities or whether the backdrop of investments into clubs is money laundering of funds acquired illegally. Moreover, transfers of players to foreign clubs are also under scrutiny.
- “We have immense work ahead of us, as we need to look into transfers into foreign clubs and sponsoring contracts – the funds that were paid and how the sponsors had originally come to earn the funds. We will also investigate under what circumstances players have been sold, what share of the transfer the players, the clubs and the FA received. We have certain information but all things will need to be corroborated by evidence,” says Blic source from the Ministry of Police. Primarily transfers conducted during former Red Star chairman Dragan Stojkovic’s tenure are canvassed. Blic source emphasizes the alleged collaboration of individuals who acquired their wealth through illegal businesses, typically with drugs, and football clubs. The allegations do not solely incriminate Serbian “businessmen” but also those from Montenegro, who have continued to have influence in domestic football lawful and criminal affairs even after the break-up of the mutual country.
‘Players don’t get to choose a career” - “Illegal affairs have been part of our football for more than a decade and the mobsters involved insist on their claim of the transfers, which rarely end up on the accounts of former footballers, who are nowadays agents. Illegally acquired funds are invested into young and prospective players from smaller communities. The players are bought for petty amounts and are brought to a bigger club. It goes without saying these clubs no means and money to offer the players all they need, and that’s when so-called managers come into play, but don’t sign anything formally. That part of the process is done for them by licensed football agents. A young player is given, say, a few tens or hundreds of thousands Euros, which is more than enough to secure both him and his family. The money given is usually originally gained through drug trafficking. On signing a contract with a professional agent, the contents of which say the player is obliged to return the money on the completion of a contract with a foreign side, along with an additional share, which is generally one fifth of the contract in question. Naturally the bulk of the money eventually goes to the criminal, while the relatively small remainder is left for the agent,” explains the police source. Upon the arrival at the new club a young player must as soon as possible grow in class so that managers and scouts of affluent European clubs could spot them as potential signings. That pushes both the coach and the club executives to give the player plenty of time on the pitch and in the media, so that the player can eventually be sold and the dirty money invested be recouped in next to no time and under favourable terms. The most favourable terms and conditions don’t mean the finest environment for a player to bloom, but the biggest kind of money that can be bargained for. Footballers just play small roles in the affair and don’t get to choose whether they’d like to continue their careers in France or Ukraine. It’s the mafia bosses who do that for them.” Last year only, according to official police findings, the ringleader of a Belgrade-based clans earned more than 3m € on such businesses. He managed to sell two players from one of the most popular clubs in our country to a foreign side. Aside from these investments into upcoming stars of tomorrow’s game, these Belgrade “godfathers” invest into those businesses where they can get the quickest return of money invested, such as civil engineering. Obviously their names are nowhere to be seen in the official papers. - “All those criminals, not only the ones from Belgrade, who have earned enormous sums through criminal activities and invested into football, are all inter-connected and don’t jeopardise each other’s businesses. They even hang out together and cooperate. One of the criminal’s brother used to play for a club owned by another mobster,” our source concludes.
Government pays the price The football mobsters closely cooperate with the ones from Montenegro. Branko Bulatovic, the former Serbia and Montenegro FA chief executive, was murdered on 27 March, 2007 outside his Belgrade office. Although the assassination case was never cracked, there were rumours Bulatovic was killed because of some player transfer, after certain players were unhappy at the money allocation. - “Bulatovic was officially the head of the FA, although there were some even more influential and powerful compatriots from Montenegro at the time. These were men who had for decades combined forces with Serbian criminals in their activities in the Western countries, robbing banks and similar. On their return they invested the money they’d got their hands on into not only purchases of hotels, companies and banks, but also football clubs, helping build top-notch stadia. Although the former mutual country is no more, they still have substantial influence in Serbian football institutions – they appoint their people at executive positions and sell players from Serbia,” says Blic source. In the opinion of our source, the government is on the receiving end of these illegal businesses as no taxes can be imposed. The official authorities have been passive so far and no inquires have been made into player transfers and investments into players and clubs or the origin of the funds.
Zigic, Lazovic, Jankovic... There is as yet no proof of it, but a number of famous players have been named as victims of illegal affairs done by criminals, agents and clubs. The names of Danko Lazovic, Nikola Zigic, Zvonimir Vukic, Bosko Jankovic and Igor Duljaj have been brought into connection with such crime-plagued transfers. The entire business procedure can also be done solely by club executives, bringing mutual consent and a split of the earnings. The Niksic-based Brano Micunovic, who is said to be the sovereign of the underground businesses of Montenegro, is allegedly closely associated with the Serbian football mafia. A couple of years ago he purchased the local club of Sutjeska, and has for a long time been involved in player transfers, too. One of his most infamous deals is the selling of then 17-year-old Mirko Vucinic to the Italian side of Lecce for 1m Deutsch Marks. The privatization of Serbian clubs, according to legal acts, will be done within a year or two. Without a shred of sarcasm one can deduce from the current affairs that players are already one foot into being a regular private property asset.
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