VERBAL CONDEMNS AND (FORCED) APOLOGIES ARE NOT ENOUGH
Regarding the homophobic statements made by the president of the Croatian Football Association, Vlatko Marković, and the executive vice president of NK "Dinamo", Zdravko Mamić, as well as repeated racist outbursts at football matches, I warn that verbal condemnations and apologies are not enough.
As the Ombudsman in my capacity as the central body for combating discrimination, I call on the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, the Croatian Olympic Committee, and the Croatian Football Federation to take all legal and other measures provided for by law and their rules to prevent and sanction discriminatory statements and actions.
I would like to remind you that the Croatian Football Federation is an association established by law and entrusted with public powers by the Sports Act. It is a full member of the Croatian Olympic Committee, and is affiliated with the World Football Association (FIFA) and the European Football Association (UEFA). According to Art. 7 of its statute, it is represented in these associations by its president.
With his statement, as with some previous statements, he violated one of the fundamental principles of all these associations, which is the prohibition of discrimination of any kind. He also violated the provision of Article 1, paragraph 3 of the Sports Act, according to which sports must be equally accessible to everyone regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, social status, political or other belief.
The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, pursuant to Article 84 of the Sports Act, supervises the work of legal entities in the sports system. The Croatian Olympic Committee is authorized and obligated to ensure respect and adherence to the principle of non-discrimination contained in the Olympic Charter and its statute, and the Croatian Football Federation is obligated to ensure respect and adherence to the principle of non-discrimination contained in the Olympic Charter and its statute by its representatives and members.
They are all obliged to act in accordance with the Anti-Discrimination Act, according to which incitement to discrimination is prohibited, as is discrimination itself.
On this occasion, not for the first time, I would like to warn that the aforementioned bodies and associations are not sufficiently exercising their powers and duties of supervising the implementation of laws in sports and respect for the principles and provisions prescribed by their acts and rules. In this sense, they bear responsibility for the situation in sports, and in particular in football.
Therefore, I call on them to publicly state the procedures and measures they have taken or will take with the aim of preventing and sanctioning discrimination in sports and consistently implementing the law and their own rules, as well as to report what they have done to the Ombudsman in accordance with the provisions of the Ombudsman Act and the Anti-Discrimination Act.
