Soccer

Josip Simunic fails to have ban overturned

The Croatian defender was given a 10-match suspension by Fifa for a pro-Nazi chant

Josip Simunic has failed to have his ban overturned by CAS. Photograph: Getty Images.
Josip Simunic has failed to have his ban overturned by CAS. Photograph: Getty Images.
Mon May 12 2014 - 14:10

Croatia defender Josip Simunic will definitely miss the World Cup finals after losing his appeal against a 10-match ban imposed by Fifa after he made a fascist salute in November.

Simunic, now 36, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport following the announcement of his lengthy suspension.

He was punished by world football’s governing body after being captured on video using a microphone to lead chants which were found to have associations with Croatia’s former pro-Nazi Ustase regime following his country’s World Cup qualifying play-off victory over Iceland in Zagreb on November 19th.

Croatia face hosts Brazil, Mexico and Cameroon in Group A at the finals, but Dinamo Zagreb captain Simunic is banned from entering the stadium for any of those games — or for any further games should the nation progress.

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A statement released by CAS today read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected the appeal filed by the Croatian football player Josip Simunic against the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee issued on February 21st, 2014.

“The CAS confirmed the sanction imposed by Fifa against the player, who remains suspended for 10 official matches, the first of which has to be served during the final competition of the 2014 Fifa World Cup, banned from entering the confines of the stadiums for those 10 matches and also fined 30,000 Swiss francs.”

After Fifa disciplinary proceedings were opened against Simunic on November 22 of last year, a statement from his club Dinamo denied he had had any intent to make a political statement but confirmed that Simunic had used the phrase: “For the homeland”.

The player took the microphone at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, turned to the stands and shouted ‘Za dom’ (for the Homeland), to which the audience replied ‘Spremni’ (Ready).

The call-and-response salute is widely associated with Croatia’s Nazi-allied Ustasha regime which ruled in 1941-45 and brutally persecuted Jews, Serbs, Gypsies and anti-fascist Croats.

But FIFA found him guilty of “offending the dignity of a group of persons by using discriminatory words”.