When the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict against Zdravko Mamić that Monday afternoon, he was — instead of in the courtroom — sitting in a hotel in Široki Brijeg, in a country he fled to back in 2018 and which did not want to extradite him to Croatia. The news that he was definitively sentenced to six and a half years in prison for embezzling 116 million kuna from Dinamo reached him through screens and media.
This formally ended one judicial saga, but the more important one was just beginning: a tremor in the judiciary that would have far-reaching consequences for months and years to come.
‘No one can do anything to us’
For some a visionary, for others a tyrant — Mamić was undeniably a key figure in Croatian club football since the early 2000s. His power did not come solely from his positions, but from influence, networks, authority, and the ability to manage the player market.
Symbolically, his public appearances were often accompanied by a hit song he would sing even in front of cameras: “No one can do anything to us, we are stronger than fate” — a line that well illustrated how he projected power.
During his era, Dinamo achieved results it had not seen in decades: entries into the Champions League, European spring, and a series of great players who moved to top clubs — the most successful period since the trophy of the Fair Cities Cup in 1967.
However, at the same time, the club lived for years under the burden of accusations that Mamić’s personal power exceeded all frameworks of sports management. The trial confirmed that the dark suspicions were well-founded.
A verdict that resonated but did not stop the story
On March 15, 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences for his brother Zoran Mamić (4 years and 8 months) and Damir Vrbanović (3 years).
But what would happen 24 hours later would completely shift the focus from sports crime to something much more serious.
Revenge from Mostar: ‘I bribed judges.’
At a press conference the day after the verdict at the Mepas hotel, Mamić made accusations that would become a turning point. In football, he was known for ‘working with judges’. In football jargon, this is a colloquial term for influencing judges, and Mamić now claimed that this ‘work’ did not only pertain to football.
He asserted that he had bribed several judges from Osijek for years and published documents and messages that allegedly confirm this. He named judges from the County Court in Osijek Zvonko Vekić, Darko Krušlin, and Ante Kvesić, and publicly attacked the court president Zvonko Vrban and the then president of the Supreme Court Đuro Sessa.
