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Day 8: Italy v Sweden - Czech v Croatia - Spain v Turkey

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
39,885
62,564
One way traffic in every possible way, this game. Spain looking very good but Turkey abject.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
It's goal difference between the tied teams in the games between those teams that takes precedence - it's worded in that way to take account of there being more than 2 teams level on points. With just 2 teams tied obviously it's the result in their game that matters. Then it's goals scored in the games involving the tied teams. Then it's goal difference in all the group games.

Clear as mud, thanks.
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2003
9,188
11,151
Just changing tact slightly but going back to the Croatia incident, taking on board uefa's statement that there will be some sort of punishment for croatia what I can't understand is why when a flare was thrown onto the pitch in Russia's second game nothing was mentioned about it?
 

UpTownSpur

Says it like it is
Dec 31, 2014
2,266
4,362
Just changing tact slightly but going back to the Croatia incident, taking on board uefa's statement that there will be some sort of punishment for croatia what I can't understand is why when a flare was thrown onto the pitch in Russia's second game nothing was mentioned about it?

It wasn't thrown on the pitch it was lit in the stands.
 

Scarlet57

Reasonably priced
Jan 13, 2010
3,343
6,250
I've copied a post from r/soccer about why the Croatia crowd trouble is happening and also added a comment from that post about why Lovren and Halilovic aren't playing.

Who did it and why?

In short, extremist football club supporters ('hooligans', 'ultras') who are unhappy with how the Croatian Football Federation (FF) is run and the (supposed) corruption within. They don't like the leadership with whom they are at war for years now. What happened today is their attempt at trying to force their way, embarrass the Croatian FF officials and incite outrage in the football world. By doing so, they hoped to disqualify the Croatian national football team from the EURO competition. They think this (amongst other things) will put enough pressure on the people they want to step down to step down.

This is not the first time they've done something like this and they are adamant to continue until their requests are satisfied. You might remember Croatia being punished/fined/disqualified 15+ times in the recent years due to disturbances such as this one (riots, clashes with the police, racism, pitch invasions, etc). Especially prominent was the swastika mowed into the Split stadium field the night before the EURO 2016 qualifier match against Italy.

Again, it is important to understand that these are not random acts of boredom or drunkenness; they are planned and precisely orchestrated to further an agenda.

Who specifically in the Croatian FF is the problem for them?

Mainly, Zdravko Mamic and Davor Suker.

Zdravko is the de facto director of the Croatian FF and Dinamo Zagreb football club.

Davor is the formal president of the Croatian FF and a member of the UEFA Executive Committee.

Shortly, the two most powerful characters in the world of Croatian football.

Zdravko is being accused of setting up unfair player contracts, purchasing referee decisions, tax evasion, ignoring supporters' wishes to participate in the club decision making, and interfering with the Croatian national football team. Some media outlets have published this picture of Zdravko giving instructions to the coach Ante Cacic before today's game. Some people claim he is the decision maker of who gets to be the coach of the national team and which players get to play. He is also criticised of selling hundreds of millions of euros worth of football potential from 'his' club (Modric, Corluka, Mandzukic, Eduardo da Silva, Sammir, Halilovic, Kovacic, Pranjic, Badelj, etc.) instead of increasing squad strength by keeping the players and competing in the major European tournaments (he defends himself by saying he creates great players and that he props up the Croatian economy by paying millions in taxes as well). As a result the club is seen as the transition point between Croatian meagreness and European superstar clubs; the general sentiment being that if you are a player and you want to succeed, you have to go through Mamic.

Davor is similarly accused of corruption and being a right hand to/of Zdravko.

So what's the issue then? Get these people out of the football?

The 'issue' is that the current FF leadership is supported by many (including politicians) and that there is no proof of the accusations.

Though, Zdravko Mamic is currently under several investigations for the above, and indeed was jailed multiple times under allegations that didn't last long. Zdravko consistently claims he's a victim of his political enemies in power. He is currently under a court order to stay away from club duties (now acts as a 'club advisor'), but his involvement with the FF remains uninhibited.

---

post by /u/1Upvote_1Respect from a thread a few weeks ago explaining Dejan Lovren's exclusion from the Croatia squad, amongst other players and will no doubt help explain the Ultras' actions (which I don't condone, but understand their displeasure thanks to this post, and the OP of this thread):

"True but there is more to this story. I'll just write a quick summary so that people who don't follow Croatian football get idea what is going on. Lovren used to play for Dinamo Zagreb. Dinamo Zagreb is owned by Zdravko Mamic. Mamic makes players sign unfair "slavery" contracts so that they have to pay him % of his paycheck even when they leave Dinamo. Even Luka Modric has to take something like 25-30% of his paycheck and give it to Mamic. Usually all this is hidden from the public, but some players decide to resist. Good example is Eduardo, who didn't want to give 40% of his salary to Mamic anymore and made his story pubilc. So far we know that Mamic is corrupt piece of shit. As stupid as it sounds Mamic also owns Croatian national team and gets to pick who is coach and which players will play. So Croatian coach Ante Cacic gave a lot of chance to Dinamo Zagreb's young players. Lovren didn't like not playing and he called Cacic on his bullshit and said something like: "Those young players from Dinamo don't deserve that much playing time, and they are only playing because it will boost their value (playing in a team with Modric, Rakitic, Mandzukic & co.) so that Mamic can make more money when he sells them to European teams." Cacic and Mamic didn't like that so Lovren isn't playing. Good example is Croatian Euro squad. Remember Alen Halilovic? One of best Croatian young players with amazing potential? Well he isn't going to Euros, because Mamic already sold him and can't profit with him playing. Instead Marko Rog, Ante Coric and Marko Pjaca (all 3 Dinamo players) are included in squad, because they "deserve chance and are showing potential", but the truth is they are going to Euro 2016 to increase their value, so that Mamic can sell them for more money into better club where they will get biggers salary, so that Mamic can take bigger cut."
 
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WorcesterTHFC

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2016
1,779
2,546
Just changing tact slightly but going back to the Croatia incident, taking on board uefa's statement that there will be some sort of punishment for croatia what I can't understand is why when a flare was thrown onto the pitch in Russia's second game nothing was mentioned about it?
Considering what's happened in Paris and Brussels recently, you'd think they'd be hot on security and search people thoroughly when they enter stadiums. How the flip do they get stuff like fireworks or flares into these stadiums? The people in charge of policing stadiums and the host cities/towns should be looking for new jobs by now. I'm just thankful that we haven't seen any terrorist incident at these Euros, because it could easily have happened.
 
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