Nemanja Vidic: Man United legend reacts to death threats in Serbia | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Nemanja Vidic has revealed his reaction to receiving alleged death threats after publicly criticising the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) in the wake of the country’s failure to qualify for Euro 2020.

An Open Letter

The Athletic reveals Vidic wrote an “open letter” to the FSS after Scotland beat Serbia on penalties to qualify for the European Championship in 2021, which had been delayed by one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report states that as “Serbia’s most famous player and a former Manchester United captain, his words carry weight.” Yet what followed resembles more of a gangster film from an independent director in Hollywood than a fully-fledged football federation – a twist the 44-year-old “could not have imagined”.

The Athletic recounts how Vidic was “recently approached by reporters from the respected Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a non-governmental organisation that centres on investigative journalism.”

The OCCRP, which had been working “in conjunction” with a Serbian investigative outlet called KRIK, believed the former head of the FSS, Slavisa Kokeza, had delivered messages “seeking to organise his monitoring, intimidation and physical assault.” Another former United star, Nemanja Matic, is also “discussed in the messages”, along with Danko Lazovic and Dragan Mrda.

These threats came directly on the back of Vidic’s public criticism of Kokeza. The Athletic has seen the messages “obtained by the OCCRP and KRIK” in which the sender sought to intimidate the 56-cap Serbia international, telling him to “stay away from the association or he will end up in a ditch”.

The report also states there is a “reference to the subject of the messages going ‘to the cemetery'” in the messages, which are “widely believed to have been sent by Kokeza as the sender describes themself as the ‘president of the association’.”

“I changed after I read the messages…”

Speaking to The Athletic in his first English-language interview about the incident, Vidic is asked about his reaction upon learning of the messages.

“My first reaction probably came from the type of humour I picked up after living in Manchester for nine years: sarcasm. I said something like: ‘Well, that will be interesting if I ever write a book’,” he says.

“Then I changed after I read the messages and saw how serious the threats were. I was surprised to be told Slavisa Kokeza had spoken to people about me. That I had a tracker fitted to my car. That bad people were talking about attacking me.”

“At the time (of the original comments), some friends called me and said, ‘Listen, Vida, you should be careful’. Friendly advice. But I spoke up because I felt passionately about Serbian football. It’s something I love and something I think should be improved in the interest of the country, of players, coaches and everyone in the system. I know football. I didn’t do any deals to say what I said; I wasn’t part of any structure or political party. They were my thoughts and I was entitled to express them.

“There were other football players who are in those messages and people were also trying to find a way to threaten them. To try to get them to stop talking and stop supporting me. Am I not allowed to express opinions about football here?”

Vidic says he was not personally scared, but underlines how it was “different for my family when they read these things.” He states that “nobody from the police or any authority had said anything to me” about the situation.

“Only one regret in life”

When asked about his motivation behind speaking out against the FSS, Vidic reiterates he was simply trying to be both helpful and honest about the state of Serbian football.

“Yes. I have only one regret in my life: that I didn’t achieve more with the Serbian national team. We are from a country of many talents and I saw room for improvement. I spoke after Serbia didn’t qualify (for Euro 2020) and people blamed players and coaches.

“It wasn’t about players and coaches, but people didn’t ask why we failed. It was hard to hear for some people, but my view was that if someone wants to listen, they can learn. That’s what happened.

Despite the current World Cup in North America expanding from 32 teams to 48, Serbia were still not able to qualify, having finished third in a group, one point behind bitter rivals Albania. It offers little rebuttal to Vidic’s critiques five-and-a-half years ago.

“We must give the possibility to our young generations, not just to be football players and sports players, but to be good humans and football can help with that. It helps you to socialise with 30 other people, helps you to learn rules and respect them, like you would in the military. I think it’s very important in this world we live in to have a team spirit, to learn to work with different people. I didn’t like all players in my career I played with, but we had the same goal: to win the game, and we accepted each other with all our good things and bad things.

“In football, you know that sweat and hard work can have positive results; it can clear your head, it can make leaders, a new generation of healthy people. So that’s how I see football, not just about the professional game, but amateur football too. Not every person has a talent and maybe has the will to be a professional football player.”

Final Thoughts – An Investigation Is Opened

The Athletic reveals that the day after their interview with Vidic, KRIK “published a further story stating that Serbian prosecutors will investigate the issues raised in its recent reporting and that a criminal complaint has been transferred to Serbia’s organised crime prosecutors.”

When the football outlet asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime in Serbia about the investigation, they offered this response: “The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime learned of the threats that the former president of the Football Association of Serbia, Slavisa Kokeza, allegedly made regarding the former football player Nemanja Vidic based on publicly available sources — specifically, media reports by the KRIK portal — on the basis of which a case was established within this Prosecutor’s Office. In the meantime, Mr Vidic’s attorneys have also submitted a criminal complaint to this Prosecutor’s Office.

“Acting in this matter, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime summoned Nemanja Vidic to give a statement at the Prosecutor’s Office, while simultaneously sending a request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to collect the necessary information, along with the submission of all available SKY ECC communications relating to the former president of the FSS, Slavisa Kokeza, and other individuals with whom he was in contact.”

“The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime will continue to take all actions within its jurisdiction in this pre-investigation proceeding,” the statement concluded.

Neither Kokeza, who resigned from his role in 2021, nor the FSS responded to requests for comments by either The Athletic or the OCCRP. Andy Mitten was the reporter who conducted the interview with Vidic in a truly excellent piece of journalism on a horrific misuse of power by people in positions of power.

Photo by Miguel Saddi Vitorino via Pexels.com

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