The tickets were issued by FIFA and were not for public sale.
The Zagreb State Attorney’s Office ordered the Zagreb police to conduct a survey in the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) for the resale of tickets for the World Cup in Russia, confirmed the spokeswoman at the Zagreb County Attorney’s Office, Dunja Pavliček, reports N1 and Index.hr on September 19, 2018.
DORH ordered the Zagreb Police Administration to conduct a survey because of the alleged resale of tickets for the World Cup final in Russia, which HNS received from FIFA. The tickets, however, were not for public sale, but for the purchase by “members of the football family, primarily for current representatives and members of the staff”.
Due to the secrecy of the procedure, the spokeswoman could not say more about the case.
“In the above case, we have ordered the Zagreb Police Administration to conduct a survey. In light of the legal provisions on the confidentiality of the survey, we cannot answer questions in more detail,” said Dunja Pavliček, the spokeswoman for the Zagreb County Attorney’s Office.
The information was confirmed by HNS, claiming that surveys were conducted. They noted that “due to the secrecy of the procedure explicitly imposed on them by the police, and according to the Criminal Procedure Act (CPC), they cannot reveal exactly what the investigations were about.”
Recently, HRT’s longtime commentator Drago Ćosić was released from the network because he abused HRT’s corporate tickets for Croatia national team games in Russia.
The Municipal State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb was also initiated for this case, where Ćosić was precisely named. Ćosić’s scandal was discovered only two weeks ago, although HRT learned of the incident the day after the World Cup final.
Ćosić and HRT international coordinator Saša Dedić were the suspects named in the resale of World Cup tickets. Ticket prices for the final match between France and Croatia sold for almost 20,000 euro on the black market. At the last moment, FIFA blocked ticket resales.
FIFA asked for an explanation of why European Broadcasting Union (EBU) tickets were sold on the black market. The EBU then requested a statement from HRT, as it was found that these tickets were connected to HRT. The public broadcaster immediately launched an investigation and invited their two employees to say their piece. Ćosić and Dedić said the tickets were donated to their friends and they did not know what happened with them later.
A further investigation allegedly showed that the two employees, without HRT’s knowledge, requested and received as many as forty tickets a few months before the start of the World Cup.
Last Thursday, Drago Ćosić’s attorney, an expert on criminal law, confirmed that the HRT sports commentator was dismissed from HRT without the right to severance pay. Attorney Mate Matić claims that there is no criminal liability in Ćosić’s case because the tickets were not resold at all nor did he participate in any resale.
