Convicted Croatia official keeps VIP status

moscow — A Croatian soccer official will be allowed to watch the team’s World Cup semifinal match from a VIP section on Wednesday despite being convicted last month in a corruption case linked to the transfer of captain Luka Modric.

When Croatia beat Russia in the quarterfinals on Saturday, the director general of the country’s soccer

federation sat in the same row of seats as Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Damir Vrbanovic has stayed in office since being sentenced in June to a three-year jail term even though Fifa’s disciplinary code bars officials “convicted of a criminal offense in the past five years.”

However, Fifa says the sentence is not final because the former Dinamo Zagreb director general is appealing to a higher court.

“The evaluation of the position of the person concerned, then, is made only by its national association according to the applicable national law,” Fifa said in a statement.

The Croatian federation said any other interpretation would be “unconstitutional and serious violation of his human rights.”

“In accordance to the Croatian and general law, Mr. Vrbanovic is innocent because the relevant judgment is not final and binding,” the soccer body said in a statement to the AP.