ZDRAVKO MAMIC the top official at the Dinamo football club held a very uncomfortable press conference on Monday, clearly irritated by media writing on game fixingAccording to Nacional's source, a foreigner close to UEFA, at least two games played in European competitions by Zagreb-based Dinamo football club are being investigated. Those played against Romanian side Timisoara and English side Arsenal. German police have in their possession circumstantial evidence that Dinamo club officials influenced some players on the team to play below their level in order that Dinamo lose those matches. Nacional was informed of this by a person cooperating with the German police and UEFA investigators involved in a probe into the recent betting scandal. Dinamo played Romanian side Timisoara in the final round of play in the winter leg of the Europa league in December of 2009.

Ahead of that round Dinamo was still in the running to advance to the spring continuation of the Europa league, but needed a win against Timisoara, as well as for Dutch side Ajax to beat Belgian side Anderlecht. Had Anderlecht defeated Ajax in their away match, and Dinamo beaten Timisoara in Zagreb, the win would have meant nothing for Dinamo. The problem for Dinamo was that Ajax had already mathematically secured its place in the next round of play and therefore did not field its first team players for the Anderlecht match. Anderlecht won easily, handing Ajax a 3:0 loss at home. Dinamo and Timisoara on the other hand played their match at equal strength, but Dinamo lost in the final twenty minutes of the game, when it was already clear that they would not advance to the next round of play, even if they won.

NACIONAL'S SOURCES CLAIM that top people within the Dinamo football club influenced some players to ensure that Dinamo lose in the end, which it did. Allegedly UEFA investigators have reconstructed telephone conversations between key Dinamo officials and people outside of Croatia, who then placed bets in Asia that Dinamo would lose. Last year suspicions arose that the first round Europa league match played between the two sides in Timisoara on October 1st of 2009 had been fixed. In that game Dinamo won easily, beating Timisoara 3:0. After the game the captain of the home side Dan Alexa stated that he had been approached by some one from within Dinamo through Romanian referee Edgar Sorin Altmayer, and had been offered 500,000 euro to hand Dinamo a penalty kick by intentionally committing a foul in the penalty box area. Alexa made top officials within his Timisoara football club aware of this, after which club owner Marian Iancu announced that he would be seeking an investigation into the matter from UEFA. At the time Dinamo's director Damir Vrbanovic called the allegations idiotic. The same source also told Nacional that high-ranking Dinamo officials had influenced some Dinamo players to ensure that Dinamo lose its game against English side Arsenal in the third qualification round for the Champions League, played in Zagreb in early August of 2006. In front of 35,000 fans, Dinamo was playing on par with Arsenal up until the 63rd minute, when Cesc Fabregas, the renowned Spanish footballer scored the first goal. Two minutes later Arsenal's Dutch footballer Robin Van Persie scored the second goal, followed by Farbegas' second goal of the match in the 79th minute, leaving Dinamo with a 3:0 loss. For days following the game people were discussing how easily and awkwardly Dinamo goaltender Ivan Turina had allowed the last two goals.

Nacional's source claims that top Dinamo officials had influenced some of their players to purposely throw the second half, having figured that Dinamo would not be able to eliminate Arsenal. Zdravko Mamic also confirmed that the Arsenal game was also under investigation at Monday's press conference at Maksimir stadium, saying that because of that game Turina had been called into the police for questioning. Mamic's behaviour was once again vulgar as he verbally attacked journalists, in response to the fact that the Sportske novosti sports newspaper had published documents acquired from the German police that raise suspicions that the club's top officials had participated in match fixing.

THESE DOCUMENTS REVEAL that the German police have reconstructed on the basis of circumstantial evidence that Zoran Mamic, Dinamo's sports director, with the assistance of a number of other people, had influenced referee Bruno Maric to referee in favour of Dinamo on the 13th of May 2009, in the first game of the finals of the Croatian Cup, being played between Dinamo and Hajduk of Split. Dinamo won the game 3:0. Maric had ejected two Hajduk players from the game in the first half and awarded Dinamo a penalty as well. The Sportske novosti sports newspaper made public the documents of the German police, on the basis of which it can be reasoned that many people were involved in the match fixing ring, including Ante Sapina, the protagonist of the betting scandal that shook the football world. Nacional discovered from informed legal sources that some months ago a UEFA investigator had brought those documents to the Croatian police and in so doing initiated the Offside anti-graft sting, in which numerous footballer players and people associated with the game were arrested, including Vinko Saka, Admir Suljic and Dino Lalic, who figured as the chief organizers in the match fixing operation. The revelation that Dinamo's top people were involved in bribing referees and match fixing threw an entirely different light on yet another discovery by USKOK, one that was afforded relatively little media coverage during the Offside scandal.

AT THE TIME USKOK investigators established that Vinko Saka had repeatedly visited Dinamo's offices. This fact is beyond doubt, as he had been observed doing so by USKOK investigators who had been secretly monitoring Saka. USKOK investigators also noted one very indicative situation. Vinko Saka entered the club offices, stayed there for some time, and then left the premises. Zdravko Mamic left the building immediately after him.

THIS PROMPTED USKOK INVESTIGATORS to suspect that Saka and Mamic had an excellent relationship and that they had departed somewhere together. This of course proves nothing. It is possible that the two of them had had no suspicious contacts, even more so given the fact that from Vinko Saka's tapped telephone conversations there was no record of contact between him and Mamic with regards to match fixing. However, in light of Saka's activities, investigators began looking at all of his sports contacts with suspicion, even those who frequent Dinamo's offices, a club he once worked for. The suspicious activities of Zoran and Zdravko Mamic evoked the interest of UEFA in early 2009. Undercover UEFA investigators already had serious circumstantial evidence that the Mamic brothers were handing over hundreds of thousands of euro to middlemen in Austria, who would then place bets in Asian betting parlours on fixed matches. In January UEFA officials submitted detailed documentation regarding the criminal activities that had permeated Croatia's entire football community.

VINKO SAKA The USKOK anti corruption office knows that this suspect was in Dinamo's offices at the same time as Mamic, but nothing moreUEFA SUBMITTED THESE DOCUMENTS to the Croatian police so as to instigate action that would culminate in legal action against people that were involved at various levels in what was going on in Croatian football, which in the end happened. Even then Zdravko Mamic, the executive vice-president of Dinamo, Miroslav Blazevic, Croatia's most famous coach and Zorislav Srebric, the general secretary of the Croatian Football Association and one of the most influential people in Croatian football, had already been under the watchful eye of UEFA investigators for some time. UEFA suspects that these three men, in conjunction with some other people, were in various ways involved in match fixing. It is believed that the games were fixed in order to make money on bets. Srebric was suspected of supplying the gambling ring with information on who would be refereeing matches in the first and second division of the Croatian Football League. As of the beginning of this week the Sportske novosti sports newspaper has asserted that Srebric, in conjunction with some other football officials, has sought to cover up suspicion that Dinamo had fixed some matches. Nacional acquired the information that top Dinamo officials had most likely participated in match fixing, from a person who has been cooperating with the German police and UEFA's investigators for quite some time now. That individual is in direct contact with Peter Limacher, UEFA's chief investigator into the betting scandal, as well as some other UEFA investigators, who back in 2009 presented Nacional with a plethora of information regarding match fixing in Croatian football. This individual is Croatian, even though they have spent their entire lives in Germany. The contact is also very close to Ante Sapina, the prime suspect in the international betting scandal that exploded at the end of last year, and who was also involved in a similar scandal a few years ago earlier, that similarly shocked the European public.

HE BRIEFLY EXPLAINED TO NACIONAL that Zorislav Srebric, the general secretary of the Croatian Football Association and Zdravko Mamic, the executive vice-president of Dinamo, were implicated in these suspicious activities. The source also confirmed for Nacional that they had at least once been present at the fixing of a Dinamo game in an international competition, earning at least 3 million euro in the deal. The bulk of that money was invested into real estate in Croatia. Cheap land was bought throughout Croatia, primarily from Serbs that left during the Homeland War, a process that was allegedly facilitated by some public officials. Some elements of what this individual told Nacional have been confirmed by high-ranking UEFA officials. This raised a lot of interest in Croatia, which unnerved Zdravko Mamic. Even Miroslav Blazevic was shaken by the news at the time, but he quickly began cooperating with UEFA officials. As a result, on Monday, Mamic publicly complained that Blazevic had told UEFA officials all kinds of stories about him. The publishing of documents gathered by the German police, that through circumstantial evidence directly implicate top Dinamo officials for match fixing, confused the police and the state attorney's office. Sources in the judiciary told Nacional that initially the intent was to take action against Zoran Mamic and others suspected of bribing referees in the game against Hajduk. Subsequently the same sources lamented to Nacional that the German authorities had not provided them with additional information that would serve as proof that top Dinamo officials has paid-off the referees in charge of that game. In the end Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko announced that the anti-graft sting operation code-named Offside was still in progress, even though the first part of the investigation had been formally completed. Last week Nacional offered a more scandalous possibility as to why the Offside investigation had been cut short - so as to not irreparably harm the image of Croatian football. Even among the police there was a fear that UEFA might pronounce the entire first division irregular, according to Nacional's sources close to the police.

GERMAN INVESTIGATORS believe that Bruno Maric, acting under pressure from Zoran Mamic's associates, refereed in favour of Dinamo in the finals of the 2009 Croatian CupACCORDING TO NACIONAL'S SOURCES at the police, the temporary halt in the operation was not only the result of the fact that last year's league play had concluded, but also because of the fact that UEFA could have declared the season irregular after the fact, and possibly eliminate all Croatian clubs from European competitions. It could have even resulted in the suspension of the Croatian national team. Some police officials rightly disagreed with this, which allegedly led to a confrontation within the police. The police denied these reports, but only a few days later an unknown person delivered the German police's documents to the Sportske novosti sports newspaper. High-ranking sources in the judiciary on Monday informed Nacional that they do not believe these documents arrived directly from Germany, but that they were submitted by the Croatia police instead, which also had a copy of the documents. If this is true, then this furthers the assertion that some police officials were unhappy with how the police department was handling the affair. This is expected to change now, which could mean that a very interesting autumn football season awaits us here in Croatia. High-ranking sources in the judiciary informed Nacional that the relevant Croatian institutions will strive to ensure that all football officials for whom it can be proven that they were involved in match fixing, will be brought to justice. The same sources also confirmed for Nacional that the police have been checking for some time now whether or not top Dinamo officials are involved in match fixing. The Croatian police are investigating all of the evidence and leads submitted to them by their German counterparts, although it is unlikely that the German police have sent all of the information at their disposal to the Croatia police yet.

IT WILL NOT BE EASY for Croatian institutions to prove these suspicions against the top ranking officials in Croatian football. These kinds of allegations are not easy to prove. The situation is further complicated by the fact that those at the very pinnacle of Croatia football do not have a guilty conscience, nor do they have any desire to combat corruption in football. On the contrary, it is asserted that the general secretary of the Croatian Football Association, Zorislav Srebric, helped suppress the debacle that loomed by the eventual publishing of the documents from the German police. Furthermore, the president of the Croatian Football Association, Vlatko Markovic, voluntarily visited USKOK in an effort to find out how far the investigation into criminal activities in Croatian football had progressed, and so that he could later manipulate the facts in the case. This behaviour also led foreign sources to first submit new information to the press, secondly to the relevant police and judicial bodies, and only then to inform the Croatian Football Association.