"I call it terror. I call them hooligans. They are not supporters. Their place is not in the stadium. These are sports terrorists – and they do what they want to do. It hurts so much. The 95% of Croatian supporters are ashamed in front of Europe. Our players are really sad."
Ivan Perisic said: "Maybe it's best that we don't play at all than that these things keep happening"
Ivan Rakitic added: "We’ll have to see if we can play against Spain. Maybe we’ll have to go home. We don’t play behind closed doors for no reason.”
Captain Darijo Srna also moved to decry the actions of some fans.
"I have no words for what happened today," he said. "Time and again it happens and nothing is done."
Some Croatian fans on social media alleging that the French were warned in advance that this was going to kick off, and were even given a list of names.
Some Croatian fans on social media alleging that the French were warned in advance that this was going to kick off, and were even given a list of names.
They interviewed a British journalist on 5 Live who said stewards started lining up in front of those fans about 5mins before it happened.
All the reports I have from Czechs at the games are that there is zero security. They cannot understand this, because security searches are routine at "big" Czech games. For sure when I went to Sparta v Krasnodar in March, there was a thorough search, and for what? 18,000 crowd of whom less than 100 were from the visitors whose home is way down in the south of Russia.
I really like France, and want them to have a great event to lift the country, but I can't understand how they are messing this up, when so much is at stake.
Must have had my bag searched 5 or 6 times yesterday getting on and off trains, around the ground, getting into the ground and even on the train after. Was also given a thorough frisking.
Must have had my bag searched 5 or 6 times yesterday getting on and off trains, around the ground, getting into the ground and even on the train after. Was also given a thorough frisking.
Must have had my bag searched 5 or 6 times yesterday getting on and off trains, around the ground, getting into the ground and even on the train after. Was also given a thorough frisking.
Must have had my bag searched 5 or 6 times yesterday getting on and off trains, around the ground, getting into the ground and even on the train after. Was also given a thorough frisking.
Don't know how I could have got a flare in.
Clearly every security person in the country was employed to search you. Maybe Katrien tipped the French authorities off...
We were pretty cursorily (is that a word?) hand searched on way in to England and NI games - no scanners, no dogs. Tighter security at CAFC last season, I would say.
Quite worrying, really, especially when added to chaos of crowd management outside stadia -eg took almost an hour to get onto tram shuttle from Lyon stadium to city centre yesterday. The few staff around seemed surprised that tens of thousands of people all turned up at once. Meanwhile I spotted some police lurking behind the bushes, doing nothing, but no doubt had tear gas and batons at the ready...
Was there yesterday. Some were saying it had something to do with the 86th minute and the riot police turned up 5 mins before like all good soldiers. It looked like hell in that end.
I have been to 5 grounds and apart from Saint Denis there areas of the grounds where you could easily throw things over the 7ft fences to fellow lunatics already past security.
Zdravko Mamić , who is the current executive director of our Football federation, is at the moment pending criminal charges for misuse of position and authority, bribery and embezzling , of over 15.1 million Euros. He was charged for embezzling money in the following way: at the time of a players transfer, he would sign an annex to the professional contract in which the player would have the right to 50% of the total amount of future transfer fees, even though in reality the player did not have any claim to that money. The club would then pay that money to the player, and the player would return the money in cash to Zdravko Mamic or other members of his family.
When the manager of the Croatian national team was not obedient to him, Zdravko Mamic fired him and installed two of his “puppets”, Davor Suker as the Football Federation president, Ante Cacic, (who was at the time coach of GNK Dinamo B team called FC Lokomotiva), while at the same time naming himself as the executive director
It is estimated that he gets 40.000 Euros overall from the players for every win and 20.000 Euros for every draw on EURO 2016 in France, all made as cash payments.
A good example is the former Arsenal FC striker Eduardo Da Silva. He was not willing to make cash payments to Zdravko Mamic anymore and took the whole thing to court. According to his usurious contract, he had to pay 40% of his total earnings. Due to the fact that Zdravko Mamic had through the football federation paid numerous fees for “financial consultation” to at least two County Court judges (Jasna Smiljancic and Ivica Veselic), from the very beginning it was obvious that Eduardo did not stand a chance in Croatian courts.
Zdravko Mamic still rules the Croatian Football Federation and gets to pick a coach as well as all the players. Remember Alen Halilovic, the 20 year old FC Barcelona “wunderkind”, who had a great year playing for Real Sporting de Gijon. He is not a part of the squad on EURO 2016, because he ended his relationship with Zdravko Mamic on bad terms and allegedly does not give him a cut of the earnings. Another good example is the aforementioned 26 year old Liverpool FC defender Dejan Lovren. A player who was in the starting line-up at this years’ UEFA Europa League final against FC Sevilla, was also not invited to EURO 2016 team, because he refused “to be obedient” and spoke out in public.
Currently, a total of 16 out of 23 national team player, allegedly have usurious contracts with Zdravko Mamic, which means that he gets a cut of all earnings, salaries, bonuses and transfer fees they make.
It all sounds like a complete mess. What better stage to protest on than in front of millions at the Euros?
I think it says a lot about the most effective style of protests. On the one hand, because of those flares I'm now aware of the Croatian FA corruption issue. On the other, I had to search for information. Because of the unsavoury style of the protest (literally blowing up in the face of a steward) neither ITV or BBC have spent any airtime on the reasons behind the protests. They just refer to the 'minority of supporters who are bad eggs' and leave it at that.
If they threw stress balls on, and made the protest accessible to neutrals, or even humorous, they'd have much more sympathy from the commentators.
Comments
"I call it terror. I call them hooligans. They are not supporters. Their place is not in the stadium. These are sports terrorists – and they do what they want to do. It hurts so much. The 95% of Croatian supporters are ashamed in front of Europe. Our players are really sad."
Ivan Perisic said: "Maybe it's best that we don't play at all than that these things keep happening"
Ivan Rakitic added: "We’ll have to see if we can play against Spain. Maybe we’ll have to go home. We don’t play behind closed doors for no reason.”
Captain Darijo Srna also moved to decry the actions of some fans.
"I have no words for what happened today," he said. "Time and again it happens and nothing is done."
I really like France, and want them to have a great event to lift the country, but I can't understand how they are messing this up, when so much is at stake.
Don't know how I could have got a flare in.
Seriously though, the organisation of stewarding and police behaviour has been shocking. The French FA need to be given the warnings!
Quite worrying, really, especially when added to chaos of crowd management outside stadia -eg took almost an hour to get onto tram shuttle from Lyon stadium to city centre yesterday. The few staff around seemed surprised that tens of thousands of people all turned up at once. Meanwhile I spotted some police lurking behind the bushes, doing nothing, but no doubt had tear gas and batons at the ready...
I have been to 5 grounds and apart from Saint Denis there areas of the grounds where you could easily throw things over the 7ft fences to fellow lunatics already past security.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/croatia-vs-spain-croatian-supporters-plan-attack-on-referee-during-euro-2016-group-d-clash-a7094076.html
Zdravko Mamić , who is the current executive director of our Football federation, is at the moment pending criminal charges for misuse of position and authority, bribery and embezzling , of over 15.1 million Euros. He was charged for embezzling money in the following way: at the time of a players transfer, he would sign an annex to the professional contract in which the player would have the right to 50% of the total amount of future transfer fees, even though in reality the player did not have any claim to that money. The club would then pay that money to the player, and the player would return the money in cash to Zdravko Mamic or other members of his family.
When the manager of the Croatian national team was not obedient to him, Zdravko Mamic fired him and installed two of his “puppets”, Davor Suker as the Football Federation president, Ante Cacic, (who was at the time coach of GNK Dinamo B team called FC Lokomotiva), while at the same time naming himself as the executive director
It is estimated that he gets 40.000 Euros overall from the players for every win and 20.000 Euros for every draw on EURO 2016 in France, all made as cash payments.
A good example is the former Arsenal FC striker Eduardo Da Silva. He was not willing to make cash payments to Zdravko Mamic anymore and took the whole thing to court. According to his usurious contract, he had to pay 40% of his total earnings. Due to the fact that Zdravko Mamic had through the football federation paid numerous fees for “financial consultation” to at least two County Court judges (Jasna Smiljancic and Ivica Veselic), from the very beginning it was obvious that Eduardo did not stand a chance in Croatian courts.
Zdravko Mamic still rules the Croatian Football Federation and gets to pick a coach as well as all the players. Remember Alen Halilovic, the 20 year old FC Barcelona “wunderkind”, who had a great year playing for Real Sporting de Gijon. He is not a part of the squad on EURO 2016, because he ended his relationship with Zdravko Mamic on bad terms and allegedly does not give him a cut of the earnings. Another good example is the aforementioned 26 year old Liverpool FC defender Dejan Lovren. A player who was in the starting line-up at this years’ UEFA Europa League final against FC Sevilla, was also not invited to EURO 2016 team, because he refused “to be obedient” and spoke out in public.
Currently, a total of 16 out of 23 national team player, allegedly have usurious contracts with Zdravko Mamic, which means that he gets a cut of all earnings, salaries, bonuses and transfer fees they make.
It all sounds like a complete mess. What better stage to protest on than in front of millions at the Euros?
If they threw stress balls on, and made the protest accessible to neutrals, or even humorous, they'd have much more sympathy from the commentators.
No ifs or buts I thought.