Croatian Paranoia: England Conspiracy

[QPR Report]

The Sun - By ANDREW DILLON

CROATIA have accused England of a conspiracy to deliberately nobble their star players.

And as the tension mounts ahead of next week's World Cup qualifier, England have vowed to avenge the kicking they endured when the two countries clashed in Zagreb a year ago.

Croat FA president Vlatko Markovic set the tone by claiming his Premier League-based players have been targeted.


Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric is out for six weeks after fracturing his right leg on Saturday, while Arsenal striker Eduardo suffered an horrific broken leg 18 months ago.

Markovic said: "First Eduardo, now Luka Modric. This is horrible. I can only ask myself if it was really an accident.

"I'm close to thinking it was done to us deliberately before the England match. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what happened to Luka. He is irreplaceable."

Modric refuses to blame Birmingham midfielder Lee Bowyer for the tackle which has left him facing almost two months wearing an Aircast boot on his right leg.

Ironically, Eduardo also suffered his injury against Birmingham in a challenge with Martin Taylor and has only recently started playing again.

Markovic added: "Modric is the most important player of our national team. With him, everything starts and ends.

"Luka is for us as important as Andres Iniesta for Barcelona or Michael Ballack used to be for Bayern Munich. Without him we will be much weaker.


"There's nothing else we can do but keep our heads up and go on."

Group Six leaders England will qualify for next summer's World Cup finals if they win at Wembley next week.

Ironically, it was Croatia who stopped Steve McClaren's England qualifying for the 2008 European Championships.


Fabio Capello's men avenged that defeat last September with a stunning 4-1 triumph in Zagreb.


But Croatia's brutal tactics that night have not been forgotten.

Hat-trick hero Theo Walcott was cynically taken out by defender Josip Simunic, while Robert Kovac was sent off for a blatant elbow on Joe Cole.


An England source told SunSport: "While the win in Croatia was fantastic, their behaviour was a disgrace and the lads still remember it. Some of the off-the-ball stuff and blatant fouling was outrageous. The assaults on Joe and Theo were appalling.

"We are not saying we will stoop to the same level but you can expect us to be very committed in the tackle.

"There is also the extra incentive to beat them because they knocked us out of Euro 2008."

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2615908/Weve-been-nobbled.html

[QPR Report]

Also The Guardian

Croatia chief says there is a 'conspiracy' in England to hurt their players• Claim that Luka Modric and Eduardo injuries were deliberate
• Birmingham chairman says claims are 'pathetic' and 'insulting'
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The Guardian, Tuesday 1 September 2009 Article history
The Croatia football chief thinks Luka Modric was targeted by Birmingham, despite conceding a foul as he got injured. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge/Action Images


The president of the Croatian Football Federation has launched a bizarre attack on English football by claiming players in the Premier League are deliberately targeting his country's leading internationals.

Vlatko Markovic believes there is a conspiracy against Croatia after Tottenham Hotspur's Luka Modric broke a leg in a Premier League match against Birmingham City last Saturday, ruling him out of World Cup qualifier against England at Wembley a week tomorrow.

Apparently there is still ill-feeling that the Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva missed out on the European Championship last year after he broke his leg, also against Birmingham, in February 2008. Markovic now says that the two incidents are related and are part of a plan to injure his nation's best players.

"It is terrible what has happened to us," said Markovic. "Maybe someone has something against us and our national team. In the past year, they [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."

Markovic said the Spurs playmaker was as important to Croatia as Andrés Iniesta is to Barcelona. "Modric is our most important player," he said. "We are depleted without him."

Modric fractured his right fibula after going in for a challenge with Birmingham's Lee Bowyer. A foul was given against the Spurs midfielder and it is generally accepted by commentators that Bowyer was not at fault. Eduardo has only recently returned to the Arsenal first team after suffering a horrific injury following a clash with Martin Taylor. The Birmingham defender was sent off and Eduardo endured a compound fracture of his left fibula and an open disclocation of his ankle.

The 72-year-old Markovic has been a vocal critic of England and English football before and after Fabio Capello's side beat Croatia 4-1 in a Group Six World Cup qualifier in Zagreb last September – a game Eduardo missed – he said there was a "dirty tricks campaign" to unsettle the Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, by linking him with the then-vacant manager's job at his former club West Ham United. Croatia trail England by seven points in their qualifying group.

The Birmingham chairman, David Gold, strongly rejected Markovic's claims. "He needs to go and have a lie down," he said. "His comments are absolutely idiotic. They are ridiculous and insulting.

"To say such things is little short of incredible. For a man of such stature and position in the game to come out with such rubbish is pathetic. His remarks border on paranoia and I struggle not to take it personally when they two incidents he talks about involve my club. To lay such stuff at Birmingham's door is appalling. It's emotive and doesn't stand up to close scrutiny."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/01/croatia-england-conspiracy-modric-injury