May 28 – UEFA’s relentless crackdown on match manipulation has seemingly gone one step too far after the organisation itself was sanctioned for wrongly accusing a Croatian referee. But whether Europe’s governing body rules the punishment binding and pays up is a different matter.
According to Croatia’s state-run news agency, a court in the northern town of Daruvar has ordered UEFA to pay 750,000 kuna ($134,900) to referee Bruno Maric, who had been in charge of the 2009 domestic cup final between arch-rivals Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split.
Maric sent off two Hajduk Split players and awarded a penalty to Dinamo, who eventually won 3-0. He later denied accusations by a UEFA investigator that the game had been rigged and that he had been involved, and pressed his own charges in 2012.
“Many people laughed when I said that what I care about is getting UEFA’s apology, not money,” he was quoted as saying by Hina. “What’s most important to me is that UEFA was found guilty for what they have caused to me and my family.”
Quite how the court came up with the figure is unclear but Maric’s lawyer, Vladimir Gredelj, said the sum awarded wasn’t enough and that he would demand full compensation – reportedly €1million ($1.37 million) – for his client.
“UEFA does not deserve to be forgiven a single penny,” he said. “They treated my client in a humiliating and arrogant way. The court did not set the compensation correctly because it did not take into account that everything that had been said about Maric has reached millions of people.”
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