Croatia suggest English conspiracy to injure their players

England and Croatia have been drawn with each other in the qualifying groups for Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. In 2008, Croatia got the better of England and qualified at their expense. In the current World Cup qualifying campaign it looks as though England will exact revenge. England have already won convincingly in Croatia and the return game at Wembley is just around the corner.

Story

A story, or a non-story, has arisen around injuries suffered by important Croatian players plying their trade in England. Specifically, Croatian players plying their trade in England and playing against Birmingham.

We all remember the horror injury suffered by Croatian striker Eduardo playing for Arsenal at Birmingham when a challenge from Martin Taylor left him with career threatening injuries. Whilst Croatia had already knocked England out of Euro 2008 by then, Eduardo missed over twelve months and was unable to take part in the tournament.

Crucial

On Saturday, just ten days before England take on Croatia at Wembley in their crucial qualifying showdown, Tottenham visited Birmingham. One of the stars of Tottenham’s bright start to the season has been their Croatian midfielder Luka Modric. During that game a challenge from Lee Bowyer on Modric led to the Croatian breaking his leg and, obviously, being ruled out of the England game.

This is a terrible tragedy for Modric as it was for Eduardo and it is bad news for Croatia, just as it was and is for Arsenal and Tottenham. Beyond that, however, this can surely be nothing other than an unfortunate coincidence.

Croatia’s Football Federation President, Vlatko Markovic has suggested that it may be more than that,

“It is terrible what has happened to us. Maybe someone has something against us and our national team. In the past year, English footballers have injured Eduardo and now the same has happened to Luka Modric. I can only ask whether someone did it deliberately on the eve of the game with England. I can only ask myself whether it is a coincidence or not.”

This scandalous suggestion has been ridiculed by Birmingham owner David Gold,

“To suggest it’s a conspiracy, particularly by our club, is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t see an ounce of reality about it at all – I find it nonsensical. I was at the game and I was only a few feet away from the incident and it was a very mild entanglement. Modric was outstanding in that game so no wonder they’re disappointed at losing him, but to say there a conspiracy is nonsense. We should make light of it – maybe the problem is the statement has been completely lost in translation, maybe he meant to say something different.”

Mr Gold is right to make light of what the Croatian Football Federation President has said because it is both offensive and ridiculous. There is no way that any such conspiracy has taken place and there is no way that English football, England or Birmingham would ever be a party to such a thing.

It is an absolute ‘non-story’ isn’t it?