2023-06-29 23:31:36
Luka Modric, Real Madrid midfielder, and former Liverpool defender Diane Lovren have been charged once more in Croatia for giving false testimony regarding financial deals they concluded with the former Dinamo Zagreb manager, who has been sentenced on charges of embezzlement and tax fraud of millions of dollars.
Zdravko Mamic was convicted in 2018 of several charges, including making illegal profits from player transfers, when he was at the helm of the Croatian team Dynamo Zagreb, including two deals that transferred Modric to Tottenham in 2008 and Lovren to Lyon in 2010. Mamic was sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison. But they fled to Bosnia before the guilty verdict was announced.
Modric and Lovren were charged with perjury and failure to pay taxes on their transfers to foreign clubs, amounting to several million. But a Croatian court dropped the charges once morest them on the eve of the 2018 World Cup, where they were both playing when Croatia reached the final and lost to France.
Modric won the FIFA Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.
The Croatian court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that Modric – the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner and UEFA’s Player of the Year – and Lovren committed the crime of perjury.
However, Croatian prosecutors said on Thursday there was enough evidence that Croatia captain Modric and Lovren gave false testimony during the original trial.
The ruling once morest Mamić stated that he signed personal contracts with players during their early years at Dinamo Zagreb, including Modric and Lovren, forcing them to share their profits with him.
Mamic claims that some of this money was never paid to him, and that Modric and Lovren are “complicit” in the graft case once morest him.
“We met and signed an agreement to share the money,” he said, speaking to reporters in Bosnia earlier this month. “Modric took out the money and gave me part,” adding, “No player in history has ever paid a dime in taxes.”
If convicted of perjury, both players will face between six months and five years in prison.
No trial date has been set.
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