Prime Minister Andrej Plenković he said on Friday in Osijek that displaying the Ustasha flag is unacceptable and punishable, and he expressed the hope that the audience will be able to attend the match of the Croatian national football team in October in Osijek.
Plenković said this referring to the case in which rioters were sentenced to prison and fines for bringing the Ustasha flag into Rijeka’s Rujevica stadium during the match between Croatia and Latvia.
“Let’s be fair to the national team that gives us so much pleasure and allow the people of Osijek and all football friends to come to the new stadium and I believe in the new success of the Croatian national team,” said Plenković.
For the Croatian national football team, he said that it has provided everyone, all the time, and especially in the last five and a half years, top sporting successes that countries of our size do not have. From a country the size of Uruguay, no one has achieved such success, and Uruguay was before the Second World War, said the Prime Minister.
The Croatian Football Association (HNS) previously reported that the Municipal Court in Rijeka imposed a fine of 1,300 euros on the first defendant, DC, and a 20-day prison sentence on the second defendant, DS, for displaying the Ustasha flag at a football match between Croatia and Latvia at the stadium Rujevica.
In addition, both were ordered to attend all sports competitions in which the Croatian national football team participates in the territory of the Republic of Croatia with the obligation to report to the police station for a period of two years, as well as to travel abroad to the matches of the Croatian national team with the obligation to present a travel document and reporting to the police station, also for a period of two years.
