FIFA – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia’s Fair Chance Of Victory At World Cup Snatched Away!

June 13, 2014 by inavukic 72 Comments

Croatian flag face paint

Congratulating Brazil on its victory at the World Cup opening game against Croatia – Thursday 12 June – I cannot but notice that the world leading media outlets seem to be in agreement that the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura “gifted” brazil a penalty shot that kicked off a winning streak for the Brazilian team.

“ With 20 minutes of normal time remaining, referee Nishimura adjudged that Dejan Lovren had fouled Fred and pointed to the penalty spot. It was a bewildering decision, with television pictures clearly showing that the Brazil striker had fallen over and not been dragged down by Lovren…” write’s CNN’s James Masters.

“A dubious penalty call saw Neymar chalk up his second to give Brazil the lead in the 71st minute…” comments ABC’s Dean Bilton.

BBC’s commentator and former UK team player, Chris Waddle, reportedly could not believe how the penalty shot was awarded against Croatia. “…the game was led by a bad referee who decided the game”.

“The game turned on a controversial penalty awarded by Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura in the 71st minute when striker Fred went down inside the area under minimal contact from defender Dejan Lovren. Neymar scored from the spot and the Croatians were furious.
‘If that was a penalty, we should be playing basketball,” said Croatia coach Niko Kovac. “Those kinds of fouls are penalized there.’’
‘That is shameful, this is not a World Cup referee. He had one kind of criteria for them and another for us. The rules were not the same,‘’ said Kovac, writes The Guardian/Associated Press

“Brazil were level minutes later courtesy of Neymar sending a shot spinning beyond the Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa via a post from 22 yards out.
Nishimura’s night managed to get progressively worse when he somehow spotted a foul on Fred by Dejan Lovren that never was.
It was a clear dive, but Nishimura pointed to the penalty spot before booking Lovren rather than Fred. It was a stinking ‘home-town’ decision that used to be famous during prize boxing matches in North America.
You do wonder how many referees are influenced by what is going on outside of the stadium. Namely, the need for Brazil to do well against a backdrop of protesters unhappy with the use of the public purse to host the finals.
Neymar planted the penalty to the right of Pletikosa, who should have saved…
There was time yet for Nishimura to continue his error-strewn ways when he disallowed a legitimate Croatia equaliser after Ivica Orlic was deemed to have fouled the Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar in the air on 82 minutes. It was another dreadful call, but one in keeping with the general poverty of his decision-making…” writes Desmond Kane, Eurosport

“…Brazil’s penalty was, undoubtedly, the turning point of the night. It came in the 71st minute and if one positive comes from it this will be the last we see of this referee for a good while. Brazil were on top at the time but labouring. Croatia were not a goal threat but were holding fast at the back and a gutsy draw was beginning to look a real possibility.
At which point Fred – not as exciting a forward as his name suggests, by the way – backed into Dejan Lovren and then fell beneath the merest contact from the Croatian defender. Nishimura needed no second invitation to do the bidding of the Arena Corinthians and pointed to the spot. Brazil’s No 10 did the rest.
There may even be a question over the legality of the Brazil’s penalty… Nishimura’s infamy may take longer to live down… So, not a good night for referee Yuichi Nishimura of Japan who will feature in many conspiracy theorists most fevered speculations from here. He was almost certainly useless, not corrupt, but it is true that his three big errors were all to the benefit of one team.

FIFA only have themselves to blame, therefore, for this fresh round of slander and negativity. They are now regarded as a rogue organisation – an administrative axis of evil, if you will – and it is a very small step from believing events around the game are corrupt, to thinking the same applies to the game itself.
The need for Brazilian success here has been universally agreed and the disgust with FIFA is now so great, all too many can imagine them facilitating results like any other backdoor deal.
Of course, if FIFA were so desperate to ensure Brazilian progress they would surely not have placed them on a potential collision course with Spain or Holland – both of whom could be a real threat on this evidence – in round two, but logic won’t get too much play over the coming weeks if there are too many repeats of travesties like this.
It wasn’t that the best team didn’t win – they did – but the way it happened left a sour taste…” writes Martin Samuel of Daily Mail.

And so the same story is repeated in the majority of world’s mainstream media. The referee Yuichi Nishimura and FIFA acted dishonourably, snatching away Croatia’s fair chance at victory in this game. But then again, nothing surprises me when it comes to FIFA – it started chipping away at Croatia’s chances of victory some months back when it made the decision to exclude Joe Simunic from the game, wrongly and wickedly deciding that his chant “For Home” at a soccer game was a WWII fascist chant! One could see the politically ill winds against Croatia blowing from FIFA a long time ago. If corruption allegations in relation to Qatar 2022 currently afoot against Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, prove to be true, who knows what other nasties will crawl out from under the FIFA rock? Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Croatia Team: “We did not deserve to lose”
Photo: Sanjin Strukic/Pixsell

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Croatia, FIFA, Joe Simunic, Niko Kovac, Sepp Blatter, World Cup 2014, Yuichi Nishimura

Croatia: Barry Lituchy’s Fabrication Of History Or When Greater Serbia Lobby Gets Desperate

February 6, 2014 by inavukic 51 Comments

The crowning of Croatia’s King Tomislav, 925
Painting by Oton Ivekovic
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

I once read that actions such as the denial of the Holocaust, and the use of racist strategies generally — against Jews, Muslims, Serbs, Croats, whomever — contain the foundation of the destruction and failure of those who practice them. I agree. Keeping that thought in mind and heart, I hope that Barry M. Lituchy’s Serbian propaganda will soon stumble upon its deserved demise. It is impossible for me and, I guess, every human being who thrives on truth to keep quiet about blanket racist political strategies that seem to focus on the destroying of one person via vilifying a whole nation of people. That is racist and that is how, one by one person, masses have been murdered and it strikes ones gasping for justice when encountered.

I turn here to a letter, that has just come to light, reportedly written to FIFA by Barry M Lituchy (an adjunct assistant professor of History at Medgar Evers College at City University of New York) in the matter of FIFA’s disciplinary considerations in Joe Simunic case and the “For Home” chant at the end of soccer match between Croatia and Iceland some months ago.

In that letter to FIFA, Barry M. Lituchy reportedly states:
“In the territory that today comprises Croatia, Croats actually comprised a minority of the population. The territory was populated by millions of Serbs, Jews and Romas. To create a Croatian homeland the Ustashe carried out the plundering of Serbian, Jewish and Roma property, mass arrests, imprisonment in concentration camps, and the mass murder of some one million people of Jewish, Serbian and Roma ethnicity as well as the forced conversion to Roman Catholicism of the remaining of Serbian and Jewish population…”

Excerpt of Barry M Lituchy statement
to FIFA
Photo: Screen shot 6 February 2014
http://fenix-magazin.com

The fact that Barry M. Lituchy has been considered as a fabricator of evidence, or untruths is nothing new, but I feel profoundly sad that the President of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic, has not responded publicly regarding Barry M. Lituchy’s letter to FIFA in defence of the truth and the Croatian nation. While it’s a given that Josipovic cannot interfere in FIFA’s disciplinary process or its decisions regarding Joe Simunic, while it’s a given that Josipovic cannot deny the Holocaust, he can and should respond to Lituchy’s statement (since parts of it have been made available to the public) and demand, with forceful determination, that Lituchy publicly retracts parts of his statement that, for example, relate to the history of Croats and their historically established and rightful homeland; and he can publicly condemn Lituchy’s recklessly insidious and flippant handling of the actual numbers of those who perished in Croatia during Holocaust, he can publicly state that the Jewish community of Croatia, with its religious and cultural identity, had actually survived despite the horrors of WWII Holocaust… and so did the Serbian one!

When it comes to Barry M. Lituchy one can come across many references that suggest he is a supporter, if not a political operative, of the Greater Serbia sweep, which has been linked to genocidal undertakings, such as Srebrenica massacre of 1995 and aggression against Croatia in the 1990’s with all its brutal and genocidal force. He appeared as witness in the Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia’s leader during the above Greater Serbia expansionist cruelties ) and regarding that, Judith Armatta (Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic) says:

“A blatant example of fabricated evidence was produced by Barry Lituchy…”
It’s more than reasonable to say that Greater Serbia lobby, which evidently includes Lituchy, has in Joe Simunic’s FIFA case found a yet another extraordinary avenue for its racist vilification. After having experienced a demise and political condemnation in the Hague (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia/ ICTY) the Greater Serbian lobby has snatched the truth from a process that is supposed to be just and served FIFA with blatant lies. It is so disappointing that a world sports organisation, FIFA, has allowed itself to enter into such political scenarios. It’s a terrible disappointment that FIFA takes Barry M. Lituchy’s statement as a matter of fact when in truth the numbers (which Lituchy presents as facts) of those who perished in the Holocaust in Croatia have been disputed over and over again, worldwide; when in truth the recorded history of Croats on that territory speaks volumes.

It is a soothing thought that Joe Simunic’s appeal against FIFA’s disciplinary measure will now have the opportunity to set the record straight on two fronts: that Barry M. Lituchy wrote lies and unsubstantiated claims to FIFA and that Croats have been the ethnic majority on the territory of today’s Croatia since at least the 9th Century AD. And perhaps, who knows, someone out there just might find it necessary to review Barry M Lituchy’s tenure as an assistant professor? Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barry M Lituchy, Croatia, Falsification of history, FIFA, Greater Serbia, Holocaust, ICTY, Ivo Josipovic, Joseph Simunic, Slobodan Milosevic

FIFA BRUTAL DESECRATION OF CROATIAN HISTORY – DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CROATIANS

December 17, 2013 by inavukic 81 Comments

Josip Simunic

Because he chanted “For Home” (Za Dom) and because the public at the World Cup qualifying match against Iceland on 16 November 2013 responded “Ready!” the Croatian defender Josip Simunic will miss the World Cup after being banned for 10 matches by Fifa.
World governing body Fifa on Monday confirmed Simunic’s ban will start at the World Cup in Brazil, and also announced he will be banned from entering the stadium for any of the country’s matches.
Simunic has also been ordered to pay a fine of CHF 30,000.

A Fifa statement said: ”The committee took note that the player, together with the crowd, shouted a Croatian salute that was used during World War II by the fascist ‘Ustaše’ movement.
”As a consequence, the committee agreed that this salute was discriminatory and offended the dignity of a group of persons concerning, inter alia, race, religion or origin, in a clear breach of article 58 par. 1a) of the Fifa disciplinary code.
”After taking into account all of the circumstances of the case, and particularly given the gravity of the incident, the committee decided to suspend the player for 10 official matches.”

FIFA Disciplinary Code, Article 58 – Discrimination:
“1. a) Anyone who offends the dignity of a person or group of persons through contemptuous, discriminatory or denigratory words or actions concerning race, colour, language, religion or origin shall be suspended for at least five matches. Furthermore, a stadium ban and a fine of at least CHF 20,000 shall be imposed. If the perpetrator is an official, the fine shall be at least CHF 30,000.”

Now, it is a fact that even FIFA cannot deny: multitudes of Croats in Croatia and worldwide have expressed and do express that calling the chant “Za Dom Spremni” (For Home Ready) a fascist or Nazi chant discriminates against them because they, like Simunic, do not hold it as such but as an historic (pre-WWII) expression of patriotism and love for Croatia. Indeed, even though FIFA it its 16 December 2013 media statement says it has taken into account “all of the circumstances of the case” it is blatantly clear that it had brutally disregarded the information/circumstance of that greeting not being the greeting that can only be attributed to WWII Ustashe regime in Croatia, or that Simunic had clearly stated he had not used that greeting as Ustashes had.

Here is just one example of a letter sent to FIFA or information sent several days before it made its decision to brutally punish Joe Simunic:

“The origin, meaning and actual context of the «For Home» («Za dom») phrase

Historioghraphically, it is completely undoubtable that the phrase «For home» belongs to the Croatian traditional heritage and, as such, it has been very prevalent in various types of Croatian social life for several centuries. Historical sources evidence that the phrase «For home» was used in ethnological, literary, music, political, military, cultural and other forms of Croatian social life during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It has been applied to very differing occasions and situations; official and everyday ones. Because of all of that the phrase «For home» has become naturalised among the various generations of the widest of classes of Croatian population.
With that, the phrase «For home» has acquired very wide communication meanings. Cumulatively, it had represented the widest expression of value of social solidarity. i.e., devotion to home and homeland, but it was also used as a spontaneous and amiable everyday greeting.
The omnipresence and social desirability of the phrase “For home” and the different variations with the word home had been recognised by different social groups and political parties and movements in Croatia, which used them in their activities. For example, the largest and the most influential Croatian party of the 20th century Croatia – Croatian Peasant Party, which was of the left ideological orientation – had given its main newsletter the title “Home” (“Dom”).
The Ustashe movement, which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and established a totalitarian regime in the Independent State of Croatia – NDH (1941 – 1945), used a series of contents from the Croatian traditional heritage in their original or adapted forms. Among other things they adapted the traditional phrase “For home” into their salutation “For Leader and Home!” With the ending of World War II, NDH ceased to exist and the newly established Yugoslav communist totalitarian regime mounted a cruel and thorough revenge with its representatives and its ideology. The war collaborative regimes in Slovenia and Serbia experienced the same fate.
But, the Yugoslav communist regime had during the post-war years, across the whole of Yugoslav territory, especially systematically, thoroughly and cruelly, destroyed the overall material and spiritual pre-communist civilisation and national heritage. Traditional heritage of ethnic majorities (Slovenians, Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, Albanians, Montenegrins, Macedonians) and of some twenty ethnic minorities had in the national sense, suffered equally.
All these crimes occurred in the name of the exclusive and bigoted communist ideology. All non-communist and, to the regime undesirable persons, associations, ideas, symbols etc. were pronounced counter-revolutionaries and enemies and were neutralised through limitless aggression (via the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat).
Within the territory of Croatia everything that was not to the regime’s liking was most frequently and without any foundation pronounced fascist or Ustashe, and was exposed to destructive violence. Even distinguished Croatian communists who came into conflict with the regime were marked as Ustashe and fascists, then killed, banished or neutralised in some other ways. For example, the long-standing and most prominent Croatian communist Andrija Hebrang was arrested and killed under such circumstances. The murder most likely occurred in 1949 and the details of the murder are not known to this day, or the fate of his post mortal remains. A number of head communists in Croatia (Savka Dabcevic Kucar, Miko Tripalo and others) were completely neutralised through similar accusations at the end of 1971.
At the end of 1980’s, at the height of the Yugoslav crisis, the Serbian communist regime of the “Balkan Butcher” Slobodan Milosevic had openly called the leading communists in Croatia as Ustashe and fascists and consequently the armed aggression against Croatia commenced.
The Republic of Croatia had on 1st July 2013 become the 28th member of the European Union even though European and world professionals emphasised that Croatia was one of the most corrupt countries and had the highest debt. The day when Croatia entered into the EU became a day of the greatest of scandals in the history of European integration, because the highest of powers in the Republic of Croatia – against the accession agreement and the European legal wealth – had passed the law which had as its aim (according to the assessment by Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission) the protection of Yugoslav communist regime’s criminals who had committed the most serious of crimes, including the liquidation of about 80 Croatian emigrants who lived in countries of the Western world.
EU had thus came face to face with the fact that most of the state and social power in the new EU member state – Republic of Croatia – is held by the administrative structures inherited from the communist Yugoslavia era.
In addition to that, the economic, political and social situation in Croatia has been worsening dramatically during the past year. The regime attacks in increasingly radical manner, with its statements and via mass mainstream media it controls, every democratic will of Croatian citizens. Just as in the communist era, every public activity in Croatia that is not under the regime’s control is being pronounced as fascist, Nazi, Ustashe and backward.
Croatian citizens are not the only ones who suffer in the face of the thrusts of such bigoted radicalism but, in spring of 2013, Judith Reisman, the distinguished American scientist, a Jew whose family suffered severely in the Holocaust, had suffered also.
Mrs Reisman visited Croatia and appeared in public in support of the internationally awarded journalist Karolina Vidovic Kristo, who is being persecuted by the regime in Croatia. Government representatives, regime’s media and scientists had, because of that support, unleashed a shameful, strong and most primitive public campaign against Mrs Reisman, disqualifying her professional and personal dignity. While at it, they also pronounced Mrs Reisman a Nazi even though they were well aware that her family had suffered horribly under the hand of the Nazi regime.
Now, half a year after Mrs Reisman, the regime in Croatia and its media and other followers, have set in motion a similar campaign against the footballer Joe Simunic because he had greeted the public after an important game of the Croatian football representation with the old Croatian salutation “For home”.
It is important to emphasise here that Simunic is a child of Croatian emigrants and was born in 1978 in Australia, where he lived, grew up and successfully played football until 1998. Then he came to play for European clubs, and alongside that, from 2001, he also plays for the Croatian representation. Only since the summer of 2011 Simunic plays for “Dinamo” club Zagreb and lives in Croatia.
So, J. Simunic spent the first 33 years of his life in a democratic Western world, playing football exceptionally successfully and forming his personality without any discriminating incidents.
In light of all of this, we truly hope that the experienced world and European football organisations will not succumb to the hysterical pressures of the regime and the motives that hide behind unfounded attacks against the outstanding world and Croatian football player J. Simunic”. (Original text in Croatian by Prof. dr. sc. Josip Jurčević, Senior Scientific Adviser At Institute for Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Professor of contemporary world and national historyAt Croatian Studies University of Zagreb, In Zagreb, 4th December 2013 – Translated into English by Ina Vukic)

According to Croatia’s Vecernji List the news of FIFA’s sanction against Simunic shocked many, including Simunic and the executive president of Croatian Football Federation (HNS) Damir Vrbanovic, who stated:

“We are shocked at FIFA’s decision to punish Simunic…we will give every support to our representative player in his likely appeal against this decision, but we need to acknowledge that this sanction means that Simunic will not be able to play in Brazil. Although we know that Simunic did not want to offend anyone with his behaviour, FIFA has, with such a draconic measure, evidently wanted to send a strong message…”

Croatia coach Niko Kovac said he was “unpleasantly surprised, shocked and disappointed” by the FIFA sanction.
“I know him (Simunic) for a long time… and I am absolutely certain that he did not want to hurt anyone in any way,” Kovac said in a statement.
Tracking back to 16 November, Simunic said that he was motivated solely by “love of my people (Croatian) and homeland”.
“The thought that anyone could associate me with any form of hatred or violence terrifies me,” he said.
“If anyone understood my cries differently, or negatively, I hereby want to deny they contained any political context.
“They were guided exclusively by my love for my people and homeland, not hatred and destruction.”

Indeed it is a terrifying world when those in whose interest it is to keep pounding on about WWII fascism as if it were alive today only to keep justifying communist crimes and delaying prosecution of the same and for other political agendas. Indeed it is a terrifying world when one sees that FIFA, an organisation supposedly determined to stamp out discrimination actually discriminates against some in order to accuse others of discrimination. FIFA would have done a much better job had it thoroughly looked into all aspects of “For Home” salutation when it comes to Croats, rather than plucking out 4 out of 200+ years of its usage as its defining meaning. As far as I see it this move by FIFA desecrates Croatian history of the greeting “Za Dom” (For Home) and no one should be permitted to define history as they please. To top it all off FIFA’s brutal sanctions against Simunic practically ends his career as player in a national representative team! A young man who had done nothing except worked hard and loved the country of his ancestors – Croatia (he was born and grew up in Australia)! Such brutality takes back to 1991 when arms embargo was imposed against Croatia at the time of Serb aggression – it was left helpless in defending her own lives!
But don’t forget, everyone: Croatia was defended in 1990’s from brutal Serb aggression by Croat veterans who wore rosary beads around their necks and greeted each other on the battle fields with “Za Dom! (For Home!)” There was no fascism then, even if some who attempt equating victim with the aggressor might try and disagree. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)