Unwaveringly with the master

Zvezdan Terzić, general manager of Crvena Zvezda and the most powerful man in Serbian football, right after the President of the Republic, has once again "taken out" on the medical documentation and last Thursday postponed the hearing in the proceedings that the state is conducting against him due to accusations of abuse in football. Little by little, the former professional athlete, who is realistically well-behaved, calls out for illness in order to avoid obligations, mostly of a judicial nature. It could be concluded at first glance - neither a stronger man, nor thicker medical documentation.

And the only "thick" documentation in the Prosecutor's Office under the name Terzić Zvezdan, which will soon be turned into a conviction or fail because the hearing with closing arguments has been moved to May 5. It seems that judge Ana Đuričković Trifunović, who took over the case two years ago, intends to finally conclude the trial that started in 2011, and we will see how she will evaluate the prosecution's evidence and whether she will perhaps end Terzić's official career with a prison sentence at the moment when virtually dominated domestic football.

GAME RULES

He was already in a similar situation once, but also in many ways different: at the moment when he was the president of the Football Association of Serbia, at the beginning of 2008, an indictment was brought against him, according to which he is being tried to this day, but before that he escaped from country and was beyond the reach of state authorities, so he did not like detention. Even at that time he was powerful and influential, but to a lesser extent than today, and the main difference is that then he had nowhere near the powerful protector in power that he has today in the president of the SNS and the state, Aleksandar Vučić. This, let's hope, will neither help him nor give him a break with the acting judge, but it will probably mean that he prolongs and renders a possible conviction meaningless, as he, with the indisputable help of the authorities, dragged out the court proceedings and made him invisible to the majority of the media, and therefore for most of the public. In the end, the government already in some way absolved him of all accusations by appointing him as the head of our most trophy-winning and most popular club.

And on Zvezda's website for the general director, it is already concluded at the beginning that "he is a man to whom success is tied wherever he worked", and since criminal offenses and numerous affairs are not mentioned in the presented work biography, such a conclusion makes sense since they only list personal feats and sporting successes.

Born in 1966 in Vrbas, he established himself as a player in the nearby Bačka Topola, in the second division team AIK, and then played nine seasons in OFK Belgrade and remained recorded in the club's history as one of the longest-serving captains. At that time, he stood out as the first professional football player after Velibor Vasović who regularly graduated from university, in his case Economics, in Belgrade. He played only one season in the Greek first league club Kastoria, before ending his career in the summer of 1997, returning to Karaburma and becoming the general manager.

Already proven to be a leader on the field, educated, eloquent and ambitious, with good connections among newly minted businessmen, more or less controversial, he built the club with his associates. Once again, the "romantics" meant something in domestic football and after a three-decade break, they appeared on the European stage, and in 2004 they reached the semi-finals of the Intertoto Cup. They faced Atletico Madrid (1:3 and 0:2) and it is still well remembered how famous Diego Simeone and Fernando Torres led the guests in front of 8.000 spectators at the Youth Stadium. In those eight years, OFK Belgrade produced dozens of quality players and sold them all over Europe while still young, the most famous being Branislav Ivanović, Aleksandar Kolarov and Duško Tošić. From the outside, everything was perfect in the new rise of the "blue and white" from Karaburma, but later it turned out, which is quite logical for local football, that there is a dark side to success, but we will talk about that later.

At the end of 2004, successes with OFK Belgrade recommended Terzić for the position of president of the Football Association of Serbia, then part of the FS of Serbia and Montenegro, and he received the first and most important support from Dragan Džajić and Crvena zvezda. When Montenegro left the state union in the summer of 2006, the FSS took over the powers and Terzić gained importance, which he used for changes in the Federation and the national team and, of course, for personal promotion. Instead of blue, the jerseys of the national selection became red, the emblem of the Association and the entire image were changed, Terzić occupied the media day by day with plans and ideas, and as a crown - for the first time an expert from abroad was hired as a selector, and it was the famous Spanish coach Javier Clemente, who was supposed to repair the situation after the collapse at the World Cup in Germany. Unfortunately, the trophy coach did not succeed, then Miroslav Đukić became the selector, and Dragan Džajić became the director of the national team, but that didn't help either and we missed the European Championship in 2008. This weakened Terzić's position in domestic football, but it certainly gave him much less headaches than the investigation against crime and corruption in football, which gained momentum at the end of 2007.

And here we return to the dark side of the football game and everything that Zvezdan Terzić's official biography on Zvezda's website skips over: illegal enrichment of officials and managers at the expense of player transfers, money laundering, match fixing, bribing referees, propping up players in national selections, cooperation with criminal and hooligan groups, but also with serious players in the world of organized crime. All of this was reported to the public in detail by the editorial staff of "Insajder" in the series Game rules, which contributed to a good extent to the state authorities taking a more serious look at crime in and around football.

BETTER THAN ESCAPE

At the beginning of 2008, after the first arrests of football officials, it was heard that Terzić was abroad, which he himself soon confirmed and explained that he was away temporarily due to training in America, and that he intends to return and continue to lead the Association. When the former leaders of Crvena zvezda were arrested in February, all with Džajić at the head, Terzić informed the media that in the meantime he had injured himself while skiing and that he was being treated, but here he is, as he said, in a week or two in Serbia. None of that happened, especially after the police announced a search for him at the beginning of March.

He soon resigned and hid so well that even the Interpol warrant issued in the summer of 2008 did not help in finding him. The media transmitted reliable and unreliable information from the investigation, it was said that Terzić had illegally enriched himself through transfers, that he pushed his players into the national team in order to increase their price, that his main partner was Miko Brašnjević (the owner of Eko-produkt, who in 2006 . committed suicide in custody, after being arrested on the charge of being one of the heads of the "bankruptcy mafia"), that he participated in match-fixing, and the most suspicious was one with Sutjeska from Nikšić, who at that time was "held" by Branislav Brano Mićunović, a controversial businessman, to put it mildly, who is assumed to have provided refuge for Terzić after he came under attack from Serbian state authorities.

From this distance, it is certain that Terzić hid in Montenegro for more than two and a half years, and surrendered in November 2010, a few months after the Prosecutor's Office officially accused him of abuse of official position and illegal appropriation of money during the sale of three players. OFK Belgrade between 1998 and 2006 - Vanja Grubač, Srđan Stanić and Branislav Ivanović. Terzic is charged with keeping 1,1 million German marks from the transfer and enabling foreign companies, whose ownership was not disclosed, to illegally earn 3,3 million euros. Seven months after his surrender, Terzić was released from custody with a bail of one million euros and has been defending himself since the start of the trial in January 2011.

And the trial continues until today, which is due to the change of the court panel, and mostly due to the frequent absence due to illness and other obligations of the first accused Terzić and his lawyers. From 2017 to 2022, not a single hearing was held, and in the meantime, the part of the indictment related to the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburger, when 1,1 million German marks were embezzled, expired. One of the incredible episodes that shows what is tolerated is the postponement of the hearing from April 2021, since, allegedly, Terzić made the wrong courthouse and came to the courthouse in Katanićeva Street instead of the Palace of Justice.

Half a year ago, he finally found a courtroom and presented his defense before a new court panel in connection with two transfers - Srđan Stanić to Spartak Moscow in 2003 and Branislav Ivanović to Lokomotiv Moscow in 2006. The current general manager of Crvena zvezda explained how he worked as the general manager of OFK Belgrade in the late nineties and early XNUMXs: there were sanctions, foreign currency accounts did not exist, everyone functioned through internal cash registers and money in cash, loans from Brašnović were repaid by payments to his account offshore companies and the like. All in all, he was packaged for political reasons and everything he did was clean.

The Prosecution, on the other hand, repeats that there were no sanctions in 2003 and 2006, and that there were invoices, and that when Stanić transferred to Spartak Terzić, as the director of OFK Belgrade, he signed two contracts - in one, the transfer was worth 1,7 million EUR, and the other 400.000, while part of the money from Ivanovic's transfer to Lokomotiv - about EUR 2,2 million, was illegally deposited into the account of the phantom company "Guardian worldwide llc" based in Washington (USA).

At the end of that hearing, judge Ana Đuričković Trifunović warned Terzić that a summons to the court is mandatory, and with full understanding of his work, she told him that "no protocol presence of UEFA, FIFA, NASA will be an excuse for not appearing before the court". However, he was absent again last week, this time because a few days earlier he was recommended therapy and rest, which his legal representative documented with a copy of the document of the Dedinje Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases.

RESCUE

While the trial dragged on and fell into oblivion, Terzic once again began to violently climb the ladder of power, despite serious and investigation-based accusations of embezzlement in OFK Belgrade, a club that literally disintegrated after that, as best evidenced by the dilapidated stadium in Karaburma. He was appointed head of Zvezda in June 2014, and as he boasted, Aleksandar Vučić personally called him and asked him to get involved. "'Tereza, I'm not asking you if you want to or not, I know you have some dilemmas. Simply, the Star is calling you, you know. And I told him, as the old people say, when the commander calls, you just say: 'Lord, command,'" Terzić recounted part of the conversation in the office of the then First Vice-President of the Government of Serbia.

After taking over the position of general director, supported by state and parastatal money, he completely takes over the primacy in the domestic championship and achieves good results in European competitions - since then, Zvezda has won six state championship titles and is on the verge of a seventh, two Serbian Cups, two times in the group stage of the Champions League and four times in the group stage of the Europa League, with three placements in the knockout stage. Some glorify the results, others downplay them, considering the money invested, others are opportunely silent or side with Terzić, who confidently manages the club, having made a pact with Zvezda's long-term officials, starting with Džajić, as well as with the leaders of fan groups, who are with the help of the government, they developed a construction business, and in return, the "North" does not sing against the government, nor against the Administration. In addition, fan groups with the support of the director strengthen the ultra-nationalist cult and stand out in messages of hate, so that thanks to them, Zvezda has become for many a symbol of xenophobic and warlike Serbia, far from the foundations and reputation of the club from the Yugoslavian era.

Over time, Terzić weakened the position of FSS president Slaviša Kokeza and was on the verge of supremacy in the Federation as well, but first the coach Dragan Stojković Pixi seriously disrupted his plans, and then Nemanja Vidić briefly stood in his way. However, even before the World Cup in Qatar, he limited the coach to the national team, and with Vidić he came to an end even more easily, of course, with the help of the authorities and the former Dragan Džajić, with whom he cooperates and helps for a long time. As it seems, Džajić will leave the post of president of FSS to vice-president Branislav Nedimović, a progressive cadre sent by Vučić to help Terzić.

Photo: Rade Prelić / Tanjug

TRANSITION FOOTBALL WORKER

Paving the way to the informal football throne in Belgrade, Terzić was pushed by Vučić and with the help of the media and partner hooligan groups trampled on the competition and anyone who stood in his way to supremacy in domestic football: the biggest rival Partizan was completely suppressed and is nowhere near equal neither on the field, nor off it, and all the other clubs are in the shadow of the biggest one. And so everything has been going smoothly for Terzić in recent years: financial support comes from the state, state-owned companies and companies close to the state government, he does not have to justify his debts to anyone, he has the full attention of the regime's media, he also has the majority of delegates in the FSS Assembly, he became is also the president of the Crvena Zvezda Sports Association, he is not even worried about court proceedings, and the only thing he was a little more afraid of was a few years ago when Veljko Belivuk's criminal group was at the height of its strength, power and craziness, but now it's just ugly the past. And most importantly, and Terzić constantly points out, he is supported by the President of Serbia, hence several photos of Vučić in the cabinet at Zvezdina Stadium and the glorification of the leader in Terzić's performances.

Today, say the editors of Zvezda's website, "Zvezdan Terzić enjoys a great reputation in the football world of UEFA and FIFA", which is still far from the truth, and it will rather be that European officials tolerate guys like General Zvezda because they know of worse examples in some similar countries , and they also remember ours from the near and a little further past, for whom Terzić is, so to speak, Infantino. For a long time, most of the clubs were managed by "wanted persons", and after them came officials who are somewhere in between - they are eloquent and do not deal with classic crime, but their manners and appearance often give the impression of people on the other side of the law. That's how Terzić is, with his face, hairdo and build, he looks like a "fierce guy" and we can imagine him, if by any chance he performed in the English league, how after a sports career in Hollywood, like Vinnie Jones, he plays tough guys in action movies. In real life, the general manager of Zvezda has long been associated with the types of characters played by Jones in blockbusters, but that, as they say, is an integral part of the local football scene. Club officials and managers are expected to navigate both sides of the law, to know how to reach an agreement with politicians and businessmen, but also to negotiate with controversial businessmen who invest in football players and demand percentages of earnings.

It seems that "transitional football workers" like Terzić were inevitable after the dark nineties, but it was seen after his resignation and flight in 2008, and with the first election of Tomislav Karadžić as president of the FSS, that a generation is emerging among football people who see things differently and much fairer. However, with the arrival of the progressives, "experts" like Terzić came to life, even worse ones were installed, such as Slaviša Kokeza, and those who could improve the work of the Association and clubs slowly withdrew. Candidates like Nemanja Vidić should have appeared and prevailed in our football seven or eight years ago, but the transition took longer and the stage is still occupied by those who are experienced in trading cash and through offshore accounts, have connections and schemes, they instill fear and emphasize superiority, but they have intelligence and experience, they are adaptable and cunning. And what is most important in the last decade - they obey the commands of the Lord.