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New York Times
19 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Does football have a doping problem?
Arsene Wenger had a lot to get off his chest in the autumn of 2015. His Arsenal side were in danger of exiting the Champions League at the group stages and their 2-1 loss away to Dinamo Zagreb had become an acute source of irritation. Not because Arsenal had stumbled against their weakest opponents, but because the Croatian side had triumphed with a player — Arijan Ademi — who had returned a positive drugs test after playing the full 90 minutes. Advertisement Ademi would eventually be given a four-year suspension (later reduced to two on appeal) after traces of the banned steroid stanozolol were found in a routine urine sample, but Wenger bristled at Zagreb facing no disciplinary sanctions from UEFA, European football's governing body. 'That means you basically accept doping,' he said. Wenger also made clear his concerns that football had a problem. The wider game, he inferred, was ignorant of the threat of performance-enhancing drugs. 'To think we in football are just immune because we are football players is absolutely wrong,' he told reporters. 'We have to tackle these problems and not close our eyes.' Ten years on and they are pertinent comments to revisit. On Wednesday, the Football Association charged Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk with violating its anti-doping rules after the banned substance meldonium was found in a urine sample when playing for his international team, Ukraine, in November. Mudryk, signed from Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee worth up to £89million ($119.5m) two years ago, must now decide whether to accept the charge, and whatever punishment — including a possible lengthy suspension — may follow, or ask for a hearing. It is the latest in a string of high-profile doping cases that have cast a cloud over football in recent years. Paul Pogba was found to have the banned anabolic agent dehydroepiandrosterone in his system when playing for Italian club Juventus in Serie A early in the 2023-24 season. The France international, 32, is free to play after serving an 18-month suspension, reduced from the initial four years on appeal, but remains without a club. Another World Cup winner, Alejandro Gomez, was also banned for two years after a test, carried out shortly before he formed part of Argentina's triumphant squad at Qatar 2022, was found to contain terbutaline. The positive result, which the player blamed on accidentally ingesting some of his son's cough medicine, only became apparent once Gomez had left Sevilla and joined Monza in 2023. He insisted he 'never intended to, and… will never, resort to a banned practice'. Advertisement Mudryk, who claimed he had 'never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules' and said he was 'working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened' when it was first revealed he had failed a doping test, is likely to have his own defence and explanations, just as Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana did when banned for nine months when still with Ajax in 2021. Onana said the presence of the banned substance furosemide came from mistakenly taking a prescribed medication belonging to his wife. 'Everything was the result of a human mistake,' he said. Football has typically accepted these lapses and quietly moved on, adamant that the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PED) is primarily a problem for other sports. They remain infrequent enough to support that belief, but football's relationship with doping continues to be complicated. 'In my 22 years in the Premier League, I have never even heard a conversation about performance-enhancing drugs from players,' Geoff Scott, Tottenham Hotspur's former head of medicine, tells The Athletic. 'It's just not part of the game.' Scott is not alone in holding that view. The English Football Association has not suspended a player for a PED violation since Bambo Diaby, then of Barnsley in the Championship, was banned for two years in 2020. 'The benefits to a footballer are going to be marginal,' says Scott. 'Of course there are ways of improving physical fitness, but whether that makes you a better footballer is open to debate.' The FA, which oversees the process in England through the UK Anti Doping agency (UKAD), has confidence in the robustness of its testing. Figures obtained from UKAD detailed that 2,176 tests were carried out across the Premier League and EFL last season, with 982 of the samples collected from the 20 top-flight clubs. That would suggest each club is subjected to roughly 50 tests a season, but the random nature of the process ensures there are no guarantees every Premier League player will be asked to provide a sample during a 12-month window. Advertisement The overall testing numbers were 11 per cent down on the 2022-23 season, but football's authorities stress that it remains the most heavily tested sport by UKAD. Of the 8,516 tests carried out across all UK sports in the year ending March 2024, just over a third of all samples collected were from footballers, whose number admittedly eclipses all other professional sports. The doubts, though, come from what is left unreported. Through a Freedom of Information request from The Athletic, UKAD said that two players from the Premier League and Football League had returned an adverse analytical finding for a PED last season, as well as two the season before. None of the four faced any sanctions. There could be mitigating circumstances for the positive tests, such as the players in question having a valid therapeutic use exemption (TUE) or seeing the substance ingested through a permitted source, but the highly confidential process has long invited questions. The Daily Mail previously reported that 12 Premier League players were found to have traces of PEDs in tests between 2015 and 2020, with not one facing punishment. 'We take anti-doping in English football extremely seriously,' an FA spokesperson told The Athletic. 'We are fully compliant with the National Anti-Doping Policy of the UK Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; fund one of world sport's leading anti-doping programmes; and input into targeted, researched and intelligence-led drug testing that is directed by UK Anti-Doping. 'We also operate our own dedicated social drugs programme to safeguard the physical and mental wellbeing of footballers; and to uphold the values and ethics of the sport.' Football typically chooses not to roll out a programme where every player is tested, with UKAD reporting the average cost incurred in each test is £302. FIFA, the world governing body, said last year that every player selected for the 2022 World Cup had at least one sample analysed, but governing bodies in domestic leagues typically rely upon the constant threat of being tested acting as a sufficient deterrent. Doping control officers will arrive unannounced and accompany the chosen players until the testing process is complete. A training ground visit will typically see between four and eight players tested, while after a game, the number tends to be just two. At least 90ml of urine is required in the company of a chaperone for the most common analysis, but blood samples can also be taken. Advertisement 'I would say, on average, it's probably about once a month they're there (at training grounds),' says Scott. 'Sometimes it'll be in clusters and you might get them twice in a week. Other times, it might not be a visit for five or six weeks. 'Every player has to give a one-hour window every day to be tested. For the majority of people, that's at training, so the club will give a training schedule to UKAD and they're able to turn up. It's a very real prospect of being tested on any given day. They will not feel that it's underdone. They'll feel it's overdone.' And the powers go further. 'They (anti-doping teams) can also visit players' houses,' says Andy Renshaw, formerly head physio at Liverpool. 'I can remember them going to Jordan Henderson's house early in the morning after an England international when he'd played at Wembley. It's not massively common, but it has been known. 'It's a pain, but it's a necessity. It was all taken very seriously by us. We were all acutely aware that we were responsible as staff.' The higher the level, the more a player is tested. A regular international, who plays for a team competing in Europe, could be subjected to a dozen tests a year. UEFA runs its own programmes, unlinked to UKAD. Data for the 2023-24 season, made available by UEFA in December, outlined that 3,939 samples were collected across its club and national team competitions. Almost three-quarters of those (2,888) were in-competition tests, with the highest number carried out in the Champions League. Anti-doping controls were also in place at each of the 51 games played at Euro 2024 in Germany, with UEFA saying at least four players from each team were tested and samples analysed within 48 hours. It is not known if Mudryk was among the players tested after Ukraine's three games in the competition, but internationals expected to feature in a major tournament are often the subject of targeted testing in the run-up to major tournaments. Advertisement UEFA says that more than 15,000 drug tests were carried out either before or during its competitions between the 2019-20 and 2023-24 seasons, but it declined to detail the number of adverse findings in that period when asked by The Athletic. FIFA adopts a similar testing strategy, with its own anti-doping unit operating throughout the year. Its focus falls upon the tournaments under their own jurisdiction and, inevitably, that dictates the number of tests carried out in a given year. FIFA introduced its first doping controls at the 1970 World Cup. It was typically only used at flagship events and it took until 2008 for former president Sepp Blatter to finally sign up to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) code, a uniform set of rules spanning all sports. The calendar year of 2023, as outlined in the governing body's annual anti-doping report, saw 1,592 tests carried out across FIFA's seven competitions in the men's and women's games, with the majority coming at the Women's World Cup in Australia. The total testing number was markedly down on the 2,921 of the previous year, but that figure was inflated by the 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar. Including qualification, almost 2,200 tests were carried out, with FIFA saying that all 1,248 players called up to World Cup squads underwent at least one test. That would mean Gomez was passing a FIFA test at broadly the same time he was giving an adverse finding while a player with his Spanish team, Sevilla, with that result only coming to light once the Argentine had joined Monza in Italy. The only adverse finding FIFA detected ahead of or during Qatar belonged to Costa Rica international Orlando Moises Galo Calderon. He tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol two months before the start of the tournament when part of a national team training camp in South Korea. Calderon maintained his innocence, insisting his positive result had been the result of cross-contamination. Clostebol, he argued, had been ingested when applying an over-the-counter medication cream to his partner three times a day following surgery. Advertisement A FIFA disciplinary hearing accepted that 'on the balance of probability', Calderon had not intentionally doped, but still handed him a 12-month suspension, half of what he might have otherwise expected. FIFA's anti-doping report from 2022 also outlined that a further four international players from El Salvador (Erick Alejandro Rivera), Djibouti (Sabri Ali Mohamed), Ivory Coast (Sylvain Gbohouo) and Honduras (Wisdom Quaye) were suspended for between 18 months and four years for anti-doping violations during the qualification process. None of those nations, though, faced their own sanctions. The MLS, meanwhile, largely goes its own way. They operate outside of US Soccer and, therefore, do no fall under the jurisdiction of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Players face testing through the league's substance abuse and behavioural health programme and policy, but the collective bargaining agreement outlines that clubs should be informed by the MLS of any adverse findings 'only when reasonably necessary'. Elite football can justifiably claim it has not faced the same problems as other sports focused upon the individual, where testing programmes can be far more stringent. In an 11-month cycle leading up to the Paris Olympics last year, for example, athletes from Kenya, China and Ethiopia underwent an average of at least nine out-of-competition tests, according to data from the Athletics Integrity Unit. Testing in athletics remains targeted, focusing most heavily on nations with the poorest anti-doping records. And the higher an athlete's profile, the greater the testing. Cycling, too, has made changes to cleanse a reputation sullied by the likes of Lance Armstrong. An anti-doping programme overseen by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) collected 15,200 samples in 2023, a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. Tennis, too, has faced its own doping controversies. Men's world No 1 Jannik Sinner returned two positive samples for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid, in March 2024, part of the International Tennis Integrity Agency's (ITIA) programme of 9,151 tests on male and female tennis players over 12 months. The ITIA convened an independent hearing in which it was found that Sinner bore 'no fault or negligence' for those positive tests. The panel accepted the Italian's explanation that the positive tests had been caused via contamination from a spray used by his physiotherapist. Advertisement Wada accepted that Sinner did not intentionally dope, but challenged the idea that he should not be in some way responsible for his team's actions. It took the case to CAS, but it was never heard: Sinner and WADA entered into a case resolution agreement and the player was banned for three months. He later said that he 'did not want' to accept WADA's offer, adding that he 'knew what really happened', but was conscious that entering into the case resolution agreement meant he avoided any chance of a more severe punishment at CAS. Mudryk, Pogba and Onana are high-profile examples of a recent vintage, but football's ignoble history of doping stretches back many years. Arsenal manager Leslie Knighton admitted he had given his players 'courage pills' for an FA Cup tie with West Ham United in 1925 after visiting a 'distinguished West End doctor'. Knighton, who says he took one before his players, wrote in his autobiography that 'there was something in those pills, I felt I could push down a wall with my fist'. Other clubs have operated under a swirl of speculation. Former Marseille midfielder Jean-Jacques Eydelie wrote in his autobiography of the 'suspicious injections' given to players in their halcyon period of the early 1990s, an assertion backed up by his team-mate Chris Waddle in an interview with The Sun in 2003. 'Players were injected all the time at Marseille,' Waddle said. '(They) said the injections would help our recovery after games. I had a couple of injections, but they didn't make any difference. I don't know what it was, but no one ever failed drug tests and nothing illegal showed up.' Another Marseille player, Tony Cascarino, also said he had received injections, telling The Times in 2003: 'Whatever the substance was, my performances improved. I cling to the sliver of hope that it was legal, though I'm 99 per cent sure it wasn't.' In 2006, the French Football Federation and the Ligue de Football Professionnel issued a statement saying UEFA had checked anti-doping tests conducted after the 1993 final and found nothing adverse. The Marseille president Bernard Tapie, who died in 2021, also denied Eydelie's claims. The 1996 Champions League final was another shrouded in doping controversy. Juventus squeezed past Ajax on penalties, but the Italian club subsequently faced an investigation into the use of EPO between 1994 and 1998. Club chairman Antonio Giraudo, who denied the charges, was acquitted at a trial in Turin in 2004 but club doctor Riccardo Agricola was given a 22-month prison sentence for supplying banned substances, including EPO. He eventually got the conviction quashed on appeal but Milan's win still rankles for Ajax. Advertisement Italian football, by that point, was facing other problems. Edgar Davids and Jaap Stam, then of Juventus and Lazio respectively, were both initially banned for five months after tests discovered elevated levels of the prohibited steroid nandrolone in 2001, with both being reduced to four months on appeal. Frank de Boer was hit with a one-year suspension for the same positive results in June 2001, but that punishment was reduced to just over two months on appeal. All protested their innocence. And then there was Pep Guardiola, now Manchester City manager, who failed two drug tests when a midfielder with Brescia in 2001. Traces of nandrolone, the anabolic steroid that can increase strength and speed, were detected and Guardiola was banned for four months. An eight-year legal battle followed, with it eventually accepted that Guardiola's two samples had been 'unstable' during storage. Exoneration only came when Guardiola — who always denied any wrongdoing — had taken up a position coaching at Barcelona. The controversies dented Italy's reputation, with some players who faced Italian clubs still finding it hard to move on. In February 2024, former Manchester United players Gary Neville and Roy Keane discussed their suspicions around some of the teams they faced in Champions League ties, especially those from Italy, on the Stick to Football podcast. 'We thought at the time there were things that physically (were not correct),' Neville said. 'We were fit, we weren't drinkers. I came off the pitch against an Italian team and thought: 'That's not right'. I know that a couple of the other lads in the mid-2000s thought exactly the same thing.' Keane added. 'When we played certain teams, I would be walking off and you were absolutely shattered. I would be looking at the players I played against, a couple of the Italian teams, and they looked like they'd not even played a match.' The motivation to dope has always been there, albeit more for the individual than the team. 'While there is still no consensus on whether the ergogenic effects of so-called performance-enhancing drugs directly impact sports performance, footballers may benefit from certain drugs given the physiological demands of the game, alongside increasingly congested competition schedules,' says Professor Susan Backhouse, who leads the sporting integrity research team at Leeds Beckett University. Advertisement 'For example, anabolic agents may improve explosive actions, such as sprinting and change of direction, and stimulants, such as ephedrine, may improve footballers' energy levels.' Wenger's comments at the beginning of this article would suggest football has too often looked in the other direction. It is not an endurance sport such as cycling or long-distance running, and it is not a sport heavily reliant on strength, such as rugby or weightlifting. In a team game predominantly shaped by skill, technique and coaching, is there enough to gain? 'If you're a footballer and you can increase your speed, your explosive power, your endurance, that's going to make a big difference to your overall performance,' says Professor Adam Nicholls, leader of sport psychology and coaching group at the University of Hull, who has worked extensively on doping. 'It's still a highly aerobic sport with lots of sprints. Fitness is still a major requirement.' Dr John William Devine, the senior lecturer in ethics at Swansea University's sports science department, agrees. 'It's not true that because football is a skill-based sport that doping wouldn't help. It is true that doping cannot help you with the kind of more advanced skills involved in being a top-flight footballer, but they can help you to be stronger and faster and recover better.' If there is a thread that links all of football's high-profile positive cases, it is the protestations of innocence that follow. Onana said he had mistakenly taken his wife's medication, believing it to be aspirin, while Pogba argued it was the fault of a nutritional supplement given to him by his doctor. Mudryk also claimed ignorance as to how he had failed his test. The strict liability principle adopted by football and other sports presents no way around a suspension in the majority of cases, but it does allow scope for bans to be reduced. Pogba and Onana both took their initial suspensions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and successfully had their bans trimmed. Advertisement Hull City's Ecuadorean midfielder Oscar Zambrano, the other player contracted to an English club banned for a positive drugs test last season, was initially sidelined for 16 months in October by CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football, but an appeal with CAS has seen that reduced to 12 months. Zambrano will be available to play again from November. 'The reason that the World Anti-Doping Code operates with a strict liability principle is that proving intent is one of the most difficult things to establish in doping,' explains Dr Devine. 'The strict liability principle allows sports governing bodies to pursue cases without having to prove intent. 'Sport operates with a soft strict liability approach, in the sense that intent does not feature as an element of the offence, but intent is taken into account at the point of determining sanctions. 'The difficulty, in a way, is that it's not necessarily the case that you've cheated if you've doped. If we say that cheating is intentionally breaking the rules, the strict liability approach means you can break the rules without intending to do so. You can inadvertently dope.' Clubs stress the need for all medications to be checked by staff before they are taken, while supplements pose their own dangers. 'It was made crystal clear to the players at the very start of every season that it was their responsibility,' says Renshaw. 'It's what they're given when away on international duty where you might get problems. A lot of the players do see their own people for nutrition and guidance. That is an absolute minefield if people aren't always fully aware of the regulations. 'The nature of the game now, with so many different nationalities at any one club, the level of care and attention can vary greatly. It's not easy to communicate with the staff sometimes. We've always got to stay on top of that, but there's a presumptive part of it, where a player will presume what they're given is OK.' Advertisement There is often a level of sympathy afforded to players from within the game. Bans remain in place but are often reduced from what they might have been. The modern outlier to that is Mario Vuskovic, the Croatian under-21 international who plays for German side Hamburg. He tested positive for EPO after a training session in 2022 and was handed a two-year ban by the German FA. A one-year suspension in return for admitting guilt was rejected and Vuskovic's case, like so many, was then taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who increased Vuskovic's ban to four years. A final appeal to the Swiss Federal Court in February also failed. Unavailable until November 2026 — until then, he must train by himself — Vuskovic's Hamburg contract was torn up by mutual consent, but he remains fiercely popular among fans of a club that won promotion back to the Bundesliga in May. Vuskovic's ongoing insistence on his innocence, citing a 'laboratory error in testing', is widely accepted by supporters, while his team-mates posed with a 'Free Mario' banner after a match in May 2024. 'I am innocent,' he told 11freunde. 'And everyone knows it. That's the crazy thing.' His club, too, have behaved sympathetically. He may no longer have a contract with Hamburg, but there is a future agreement which can kick in once his ban expires. A possible off-field role for Vuskovic has also been discussed, but Hamburg are yet to comment publicly on that. Football's quiet fight against doping will continue, long after Mudryk's case is heard. The question, though, goes back to Wenger and that appetite to combat the threat once and for all. Some remain unconvinced. 'All sports are the same, they don't want the scrutiny,' says Professor Nicholls. 'It can bring negativity to the game. I'm sure there are people within these organisations who want to catch the cheats, but for an overall governing body, it's not really in their interests.' (Top photo design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
My dream of being a footballer took me from the US to Croatia at age 11 so Galway United isn't much of a culture shock
GALWAY UNITED'S Vince Borden had no qualms about moving a long way from his upstate New York home for football — having decamped to Croatia for the game as a kid. The Tribesmen's 26-year-old American has become a fixture in John Caulfield's midfield since joining the club for their 2023 promotion-winning season. And Borden has settled in easily after swapping the east of the US for the west of Ireland as his willingness to travel for the sport started younger than most — spending three years with the Dinamo Zagreb and HASK academies from the age of 11. He told SunSport: 'I was 11 when I first went to Croatia and I stayed there three years. 'My coach in the US growing up — from Under-10s — was a Croatia guy who played for Dinamo Zagreb as a goalkeeper and he had some connections. 'The aim for me growing up was to play at a higher level and that was hard in upstate New York. So I headed to Croatia for three years.' Read More On Irish Football His coach was Nenad 'Ziggy' Ziganta, who now works for Cornell University but played for Dinamo in the 1980s before joining the NASL Indoor League. And moving thousands of kilometres away from home as a kid was a learning experience. Borden added: 'My family came over but I was with a guy called Nate Bell who was also a coach in my first year. He was the age I am now when he went. "He coaches a college in New York City as well as the Brooklyn academy now, which is a highly-rated academy. Most read in Football 'I probably wouldn't do it again. I'd wait until I was older if I could do it again. You don't really know what's going on when you're a kid. 'Some pressures get to you when far from home without some family support. Man City open Club World Cup campaign with 2-0 win over Wydad 'Dinamo Zagreb was probably one of the best academies in Europe when I was there, along with Ajax. I was the only overseas player in my age group, so it was hard to get game time. 'I moved to another academy and played more after a couple of years. But I came home after three years. It was OK. I learned the language within six months and still speak it now. 'That helped later when I went to Slovenia as you can get by with Croatian there.' He returned to the Balkans with Rudar Velenje in 2021 after completing his education back in the USA, having studied criminal justice at Rutgers University in New Jersey. 1 The 6'3" midfielder is loving life out west And after a season in Slovenia he was asked if he would be interested in prolonging his stint in Europe with Galway United in 2023. He added: 'I love Galway. My missus is always trying to get us when there is the mid-season break to go somewhere sunny but I'd rather stay in Ireland. 'We went to Donegal a few weeks ago. She wasn't too happy because it was raining most of the time but I got to see some of the sights. 'We stayed in Letterkenny but headed around, saw the Giant's Causeway and a few of the beaches. We went to Kerry last year and the weather was better. 'But there is nowhere better than Galway when the weather is good.' And he has enjoyed some good times on the pitch as Galway romped to the First Division title in his first season. The Tribes were also pushing for Europe last term and are in contention again. Currently seventh, United would be third if they won their games in hand. They host St Patrick's Athletic at Eamonn Deacy Park tomorrow night. Borden continued: 'You could say about any team in the league, anyone will feel they have a chance and you rarely see games where it is 4-0 or 5-0. 'We just take it game by game. I think that's the best way to do it in this league. We can beat everyone on our day. But I think that a lot of the league would say the same.'
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Meet the footballer who was sold by his club after having sex with Playboy model in the middle of the pitch: International star's ex-wife reveals how he 'fulfilled his dream' in wild act that left bosses furious
Many a football player have been known for having an extravagant lifestyle thanks to the generous salaries they earn as professional sportspeople. Earning such large amounts of money gives them enormous financial freedom to spend their wages however they wish. This has seen eye-wateringly priced designer clothes from leading brands become almost as commonplace for footballers as the fast, flash and fiendishly expensive sports cars they drive. But being given such liberty to do with wads of cash whatever they choose can also have its downsides, with the chance of a lifestyle that would make Epicurus himself jealous too good to turn down. That is how one former pro - who was capped at senior level by his national team - was sold by his club after committing a scarcely believable act in the middle of their own stadium. This is the story of a how a fun-loving former international star was said to have 'fulfilled his dream' by having sex in the middle of the pitch with his ex-wife, who was a former Playboy model. Former defender Dino Drpic made 185 appearances during a nine-year spell at Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. He also played for Croatia 30 times at various different age-group levels and earnt a solitary cap for his country in 2007. While he may be remembered fondly by Dinamo fans for his loyal service to the club - which came before stints in Germany, Greece, Ukraine and Malaysia - his name was also etched in controversy in wild fashion. That came courtesy of a racy incident with his ex-wife Nives Zeljkovic, better known by her stage name Nives Celsius, who also found success as a singer and actress. Speaking on Serbian talk show RTV Pink in January 2009, she said: 'Dino had arranged that people should turn on the stadium lights for us and he finally fulfilled his dream of having sex in the middle of a football pitch. It was very naughty.' This was alleged to have provoked a furious reaction among club officials, who promptly sold him and made sure he never played for the club again - although he was linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur as Spurs had Luka Modric and Vedran Corluka in their ranks at the time. While he and Nives had two children together - Taisa and Leone - they divorced one another in 2014 after nine years of marriage. Prior to their steamy encounter in the centre of Maksimir Stadium, they endured a frightful incident in the summer of 2008. That saw a British couple try to snatch Leone after mistaking him for Madeleine McCann, who herself had disappeared from her bed aged three while on a family holiday in Portugal on May 3 2007. The former couple were on holiday on the Croatian island of Krk with her sister when British tourists photographed Leone and tried to grab his arm. Recounting the incident, she said: 'I am used to people taking photos of me and approaching me because we are famous in Croatia so I didn't react. 'I started getting suspicious when the British woman approached Leone and started chatting with him. 'Suddenly she grabbed him. However, when I went over she realised my child was a boy and apologised.'
BreakingNews.ie
13-06-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
Football supporters' Ryanair Dublin flight disruption trial collapses
Four Croatian football supporters accused of a disturbance on a plane which delayed a Ryanair flight at Dublin Airport have walked free from court after the trial collapsed on Friday. Marco Bajzec, 41, of Beechwood Park, Ballyboe, Glencar, Co Donegal, and Zvonimir Prkacin, 40, Luis Buic, 38, and Tomislav Zajec, 39, all of the same address at Confey, Leixlip, Co Kildare, were arrested on January 22nd. Advertisement The four had hoped to fly to London that morning for the Dinamo Zagreb versus Arsenal FC Champions League match at the Emirates Stadium that evening. Instead, they were charged with offensive behaviour on the aircraft but were granted bail that afternoon and pleaded not guilty. The four contested the case, which went to a non-jury hearing at Dublin District Court on Friday. Judge Susan Fay heard evidence from a cabin crew member alleging that they boarded normally. But just before take-off, one stood, asking to use the toilet. Advertisement The court heard he was advised it was not possible at that time. The captain was notified that the unspecified passenger was on his feet at the back galley. The plane could not take off, and he was advised several times, and that man was eventually given permission to use the toilet. Then his friends also wanted to go to the toilet, with one allegedly saying, "If you don't let me go to the toilet, I can urinate at the back galley", the court heard. The witness could not remember which of the four made that remark. Advertisement The captain was told they were not complying with the safety regulations, and it was not possible to proceed. A decision was made to offload them from the aircraft. However, the defence made legal submissions about lawyers for the four men not being furnished with the prosecution's witness statement before the hearing. The men's barristers opposed an adjournment, saying that one of the accused had been put on Ryanair's no-fly list, affecting his ability to travel. Barristers applied for a dismissal. Advertisement Judge Susan Fay described the disclosure issue as a "genuine oversight". She said the statement in question should have been disclosed, particularly where the issue had been ventilated before the hearing. However, she refused to grant a full dismissal of the charges and struck out the case. Ireland Parents of 25 children given leave to legally chal... Read More At their first appearance in January, Garda Emmet O'Byrne and Conor O'Neill told Judge Kelly they arrested the men at 9:15 am at stand 107L in Terminal 1. The four were brought to the airport and Ballymun Garda stations to be charged under the Air Navigation and Transport Act. The judge noted that Mr Bajzec and Buic made no reply while Zvonimir Prkacin answered, "I feel sorry for the passengers on the flight and the staff; they were delayed because of us". Mr Zajec stated to gardaí, "I have done nothing wrong"
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Irish Times
Croatian football fans accused of Ryanair flight disruption go free as trial collapses
Four Croatian football supporters accused of a disturbance on a plane which delayed a Ryanair flight at Dublin Airport have walked free from court after the trial collapsed on Friday. Marco Bajzec (41) of Beechwood Park, Ballyboe, Glencar, Co Donegal, and Zvonimir Prkacin (40), Luis Buic (38), and Tomislav Zajec (39), all of the same address at Confey, Leixlip, Co Kildare, were arrested on January 22nd. The four had hoped to fly to London that morning for the Dinamo Zagreb versus Arsenal FC Champions League match at the Emirates Stadium that evening. Instead, they were charged with offensive behaviour on the aircraft but were granted bail that afternoon and pleaded not guilty. READ MORE The four contested the case, which went to a non-jury hearing at Dublin District Court on Friday. Judge Susan Fay heard evidence from a cabin crew member alleging that they boarded normally. But just before take-off, one stood, asking to use the toilet. The court heard he was advised it was not possible at that time. The captain was notified that the unspecified passenger was on his feet at the back galley. The plane could not take off, and he was advised several times, and that man was eventually given permission to use the toilet. Then his friends also wanted to go to the toilet, with one allegedly saying, 'If you don't let me go to the toilet, I can urinate at the back galley,' the court heard. The witness could not remember which of the four made that remark. The captain was told they were not complying with the safety regulations and it was not possible to proceed. A decision was made to offload them from the aircraft. However, the defence made legal submissions about lawyers for the four men not being furnished with the prosecution witness's statement before the hearing. The men's barristers opposed an adjournment, saying that one of the accused had been put on Ryanair's no-fly list, affecting his ability to travel. Barristers applied for a dismissal. Judge Fay described the disclosure issue as a 'genuine oversight'. She said the statement in question should have been disclosed, particularly where the issue had been ventilated before the hearing. However, she refused to grant a full dismissal of the charges and struck out the case. At their first appearance in January, Gda Emmet O'Byrne and Gda Conor O'Neill told Judge Kelly they arrested the men at 9.15am at stand 107L in Terminal 1. The four were brought to the airport and Ballymun Garda stations to be charged under the Air Navigation and Transport Act. The judge noted that Mr Bajzec and Mr Buic made no reply while Mr Prkacin answered, 'I feel sorry for the passengers on the flight and the staff; they were delayed because of us'. Mr Zajec stated to gardaí: 'I have done nothing wrong'
