ZORAN AND ZDRAVKO MAMIC Under pressure from investigators - a witness that could implicate them in match-fixing is scheduled to arrive in Zagreb this weekA new phase in the showdown with the betting mafia in Croatian football is in the works. The German police has begun to cooperate with much greater confidence with its Croatian colleagues on unmasking the Croatian arm of the betting mob, Nacional has learned from informed German sources. That means that the first concrete evidence that will help the Croatian police and USKOK (The Bureau for the Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime) to bring persons suspected of fixing football matches to trial will soon arrive in Croatia.

INFORMED GERMAN SOURCES have confirmed for Nacional that evidence that Zdravko and Zoran Mamic participated in fixing Champion's League qualifier matches played by Zagreb's Dinamo FC against London side Arsenal could be in Croatia within the week. There is allegedly a protected witness located by the joint efforts of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and German police investigators. The witness is allegedly under the protection of the German police and should be arriving in Zagreb to give evidence in total secrecy and is to be immediately thereafter to be returned to Germany. "What this person has already told the German police should suffice in Croatia for a quality processing of the suspected parties. If USKOK takes the witness' testimony by the stipulated method, in line with the new criminal procedures legislation, the testimony should be sufficient evidence for the courts. The story holds water, and should lead to new arrests very soon," an informed German source has told Nacional. The same source claims that the competent Croatian institutions already known in principle the content of the testimony the protected witness is to give in Zagreb. The match between Dinamo and Arsenal in question was played in Zagreb in early August 2006 in the third qualification round of the Champion's league. With 35 thousand spectators on hand, Dinamo played on an equal footing against Arsenal up to the 63rd minute of play, when Cesc Fabregas, the famed Spanish footballer playing for Arsenal, scored the first goal. Two minutes later Dutch footballer Robin Van Persei scored the second goal of the match, and in the 79th minute, Fabregas scored his second goal to pack Dinamo away with a nil-3 loss. For days after the match all the talk was of how Dinamo goaltender Ivan Turina had been surprisingly clumsy in allowing the second and third goals. Nacional's source claims that the top people at Dinamo had some of the players play a shoddy second half, having judged that Dinamo would not, anyways, be able to eliminate Arsenal. Nacional's source says that both Zdravko and Zoran Mamic, then still an active Dinamo player and on the pitch that day, are suspected of fixing the match.

ZORAN MAMIC is under great pressure after UEFA revealed that one of the suspects said that he had bribed referee Bruno Maric in order to secure a Dinamo victory over Hajduk in the first match of the Croatian Cup finals, played on 13 May 2009. Dinamo won the match by a score of 3-nil - Maric had sent two Hajduk players off the pitch in the first half and awarded a penalty kick to Dinamo. The Sportske novosti sports newspaper has published documents from the German police based on which it can be concluded that several persons took part in the match fixing, including Ante Sapina, a protagonist of the betting scandal that has shaken international football. The pressure on the Mamic brothers has been mounting from mid way through last week when Robin Boksic arrived in Croatia in the capacity of an UEFA advisor. He spoke with Bruno Maric at the offices of the Croatian Football Federation. Sources close to the Croatian Football Federation have told Nacional that Boksic and Maric spoke for 75 minutes. The same sources say that Boksic showed Maric additional information in the possession of the German police concerning the match and suggested that it would be better for him if he were to cooperate with UEFA. Maric did not immediately respond to his offer, but it could be inferred from what he told Boksic that he is in practically deathly fear of Zdravko Mamic. Maric fears that Mamic could use his influence on the referees' association to ruin his career. Not long afterwards Maric himself asked the Croatian Football Federation to put him on suspension until the case is wrapped up, and has frozen his membership in the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union). He has said that he will not make public statements in respect of the investigating bodies, and then became very agitated when statements were published that he had already agreed to testify against Zoran Mamic. It all points to the possibility that he has already considered cooperating with UEFA and the Croatian police. This is further confirmed by a futile press conference Maric held Monday at Zagreb's Westin hotel.

A MEETING WITH CVRK AND SREBRIC The two Croatian Football Federation officials spent a very uncomfortable 80 minutes in discussion with UEFA advisor BoksicAFTER SPEAKING WITH Bruno Maric, Robin Boksic spent another 80 minutes or so discussing matters with Croatian Football Federation (HNS) General Secretary Zorislav Srebric and with Zoran Cvrk, an outside associate of the HNS. It was after these meetings that the HNS finally cut short some of its manipulations and admitted that both Zoran Mamic and Bruno Maric are suspects, and not just witnesses in the case UEFA is interested in. The discussion Boksic led with Srebric and Cvrk was a very uncomfortable one for both of the latter. This was part of the reason why HNS president Vlatko Markovic publicly complained, asking why the meeting with Bruno Maric was not led in official UEFA offices. The arrival of Boksic to the HNS offices is to date the biggest blow to Vlatko Markovic and Zorislav Srebric, who have spent months hushing up the efforts of UEFA to have it out with the Croatian arm of the betting mafia. It is possible that they have been doing so in part because Mamic is using his massive influence in the football world to protect Markovic from the Split-based lobby that is justifiably out to oust him from the top spot in the Croatian Football Federation.

INFORMED GERMAN SOURCES have told Nacional that UEFA's final showdown with Vlatko Markovic and Zorislav Srebric will start after a new wave of arrests in the betting salon scandal. Last week Markovic announced that he would discuss the entire matter with UEFA president Michel Platini. That he has started to completely lose control is evident from his words Saturday, when he said he would "eat shit" if Zoran Mamic was guilty of what he was being accused of. German sources have told Nacional that it would be best for Markovic to not contact Platini at all for a time, because Platini might very unambiguously explain just why UEFA might very soon ask him and Srebric to quietly and unconditionally step down. The arrival of Robin Boksic in Zagreb has unnerved the Mamic brothers. Zoran Mamic spent all of Saturday morning trying to contact UEFA investigators. He managed to do so in the early afternoon. In discussion with an UEFA official (whose identity is know to Nacional) Mamic once again arrogantly insisted on his innocence, but attacked Robin Boksic. Zoran Mamic allegedly told the UEFA official that Boksic was a corrupt German cop. Our German source told us that the UEFA official responded to Mamic's words saying something to the effect that "If Boksic is corrupt, why then does he insist on the controversial matches played in Croatia?" Mamic allegedly said a number of other inappropriate things about Boksic during the conversation, which UEFA has interpreted as threats. Our German sources have told us that UEFA officials have reported the threats to Chief State Attorney Mladen Bajic.

BRUNO MARIC, the referee suspected by UEFA of having fixed matches, held a press conference in which he defended himself from claims that he was cooperating with investigatorsROBIN BOKSIC was born and lives in Germany, while his parents hail from Herzegovina. He is an advisor to UEFA investigators looking into the betting salon scandal. He has been called upon because he has, to say the least, a good knowledge of the subject of match fixing. Boksic has been acquainted with the Mamic brothers from before his collaboration with UEFA, which is the cause of greatest concern for the Mamic brothers. Last Thursday Boksic was on hand for a match played between Hajduk FC of Split and Romanian side Unirea. With a number of other UEFA investigators he tried to reconstruct whether the leads were true that a number of Unirea players were to have pocketed a million euro to play a poor match and let Hajduk win. Sources close to UEFA have told Nacional that no one from Hajduk of Split has anything to do with this attempt to fix the outcome of the match, but that a third party had tried to bribe the Romanian players, who have not received their wages for months now. UEFA investigators noticed a number of suspicious bets placed in some Chinese betting parlours ahead of the match. UEFA investigators suspect that at least four other international matches played by Dinamo were fixed. These include a match played in the first round of the European League in which Dinamo met home side FC Timisoara of Romania on October 1st of 2009. Dinamo won an easy 3-nil victory. After the match the captain of the home side, Dan Alexa, claimed that someone from Dinamo had contacted him through a go-between, Romanian referee Sorin Altmaier, and offered him half a million euro if he committed a penalty foul in favour of Dinamo. Alexa notified the Timisoara management, and club owner Marian Iancu has said that he would seek an UEFA investigation into the matter. Dinamo director Damir Vrbanovic has called the accusations poppycock. Sources close to UEFA have told Nacional that Dan Alexa twice gave statements to UEFA investigators concerning the matter, and that he provided much more detail of what had transpired ahead of the contentious match than he had related to the press.

THERE ARE ALSO DOUBTS that a match of the final round of the winter season of the European League in December of 2009 was also rigged. Ahead of the round Dinamo still had a shot at making the spring continuation of European League competition, but it had to beat Timisoara, and Ajax of The Netherlands had to beat Belgium's Anderlecht. If Anderlecht beat Ajax at the away match, and Dinamo beat Timisoara at home in Zagreb, the win would have meant nothing to Dinamo. The problem for Dinamo was that Ajax had already secured its continued play in the competition ahead of the round, and did not field its top lineup in the match against Anderlecht. Anderlecht beat Ajax handily by 3-nil at its away match. Dinamo played on a completely even footing with Timisoara, but lost the match in the last 20 minutes of play when it had already become evident that it would not continue in league competition even if it did win. Nacional's source claims that Dinamo management influenced some players so that the club would lose the match in the final minutes, which did in fact happen. UEFA investigators have allegedly reconstructed telephone conversations made by top Dinamo officials with persons abroad, who then placed bets on a Dinamo loss in Asian betting salons.

UNDERCOVER UEFA INVESTIGATORS had information as far back as in March of 2009 that Zdravko and Zoran Mamic were moving hundreds of thousands euro to Austria, where they handed the money over to middlemen, who placed the money on bets in some Asian betting salons on rigged matches. A new big betting scandal broke in late 2009 after undercover UEFA investigators informed the German police of their findings. Cooperation between the German and Croatian police began in the frame of this operation, which has already led to the arrests of a large number of persons involved in fixing matches in Croatia. This collaboration has now spread to Dinamo matches also suspected of having been rigged. In the continuation of the operation, UEFA has discovered that Zoran Mamic is also suspect, and the case garnered massive attention when the UEFA information was provided to the Sportske novosti sports newspaper, which have to date shown no interest whatsoever in writing of the serious problems present in Croatia sports. The continuation of the scandal has especially unnerved Zdravko Mamic, who has completely lost control and is at war with most Croatian publishing houses. Because of him fans have boycotted Dinamo matches, sponsors are turning their backs on the club, and the police fear for his life because of the unknown murky secrets of his shady player trades. It is in this atmosphere that the competent Croatian institutions are awaiting serious new evidence from Germany, evidence that could set off a new wave cleansing Croatian football of its dark secrets.