Former Birkirkara FC goalkeeper accused of match-fixing sues club for ‘ruining’ his life

A former Birkirkara goalkeeper claimed that the allegations made against him in relation to matchfixing have ruined his career as well as his life, leading the young man to sue his old club at the European Court of Human Rights and the Maltese courts.

The Croatian player was arrested in December 2016, where he was held in custody and interrogated for 48 hours. Birkirkara FC reported the player to the police over suspected involvement in match-fixing, however he was ultimately never charged in court.

Miroslav Kopric is claiming that seven Birkirkara club officials, which include candidate for PN leadership Adrian Delia, had essentially kidnapped him and taken him to a garage in Dingli in order to try and get him to come clean about the match-fixing claims.

In comments to a Serbian website called ‘Kurir’, Kopric claimed that he repeatedly told officials that he had nothing to confess and had no qualms with the officials referring their suspicions to the police. The men from Birkirkara FC reportedly took both of his mobiles and laptop, and immediately handed them over to the police.

This has been denied by Birkirkara FC, stressing that they never coerced the Croatian player nor did they act like cowboys and take the law into their own hands.

Kopric further tried to substantiate his claim by pointing out that he still does not have access to his mobiles or laptop as the court expert tasked with investigating had not yet finished his/her report.

In a statement sent to local media yesterday, he said:

“Because of the stress caused by these lies, my wife spent two months in hospital for pregnancy complications and gave birth to our twins six weeks earlier. My four-year-old daughter has experienced trauma as well as my parents. Because of these false accusations I couldn’t do my job for the last six months and get paid for it because nobody wanted to hire a goalkeeper that was ‘involved’ in match-fixing. And I cannot prove that I am innocent because one court expert in Malta does not respect deadlines.”

In addition to the first set of law suits, he has also opened up a separate case against the football club with FIFA for not paying his salaries.