THIRD PAPER: DEJAN VELJKOVIC (He sighs deeply). ” I don’t like to talk regarding Footgate: I’m connected to constructive projects, not to what pulls us down. The investigators questioned me on three points of detail… but never on this watch story (Editor’s note: in the indictment, Mehdi Bayat is among the 57 names of people who might end up in court, the repentant Veljkovic accusing him of having received a luxury watch worth 55,000 euros, as part of the transfer of Dodi Lukebakio). And never, I never touched a pot of this wine or anyone’s watch! What’s more, as a club boss, I really don’t see how I would need to corrupt myself for a transfer… We have answered all the questions and I am very calm. But indeed, I have the feeling that I am being targeted, perhaps because of my brother… because in 3 years of investigation, my name had never come out! About Mogi, we invented a lot of stories too. We want to prevent someone from working when there is a fundamental democratic principle called the presumption of innocence. Mogi’s work is recognized by all clubs for its quality. We put a whole series of filters at the Federation, like the Clearing House, which means that technically it is no longer possible to relive these excesses. Today we wash whiter than white, we even go further than European economic law… and we might be attacked on that! Everything has fundamentally changed, but we need to communicate even more on this because the overall perception remains that everything has resumed as before.… “
FOURTH PAPER: RACISM. ” Football is only a mirror of society and cannot be asked to solve society’s problems. In a gallery, you have workers, business leaders, whites, blacks, Asians,… idiots and not idiots: you think that this person who, in Mechelen-Ghent on Tuesday, spits on a black player , not going to do the same in the street? It all starts with education, at home and at school. A child is not born racist: he becomes so because he is badly educated or because he meets bad people who make him switch to the dark side of the force. (sic). I think sport remains a great unifier, but it can’t solve everything. And unfortunately, we have no filter: it is not written on the head of a person who enters a stadium if they are racist or not… But this kind of act must be severely punished. “
