Mayor Continues Sports Federation Probe, Citing Corruption and Lack of Transparency

Oroslavje Mayor Viktor Šimunić is intensifying his scrutiny of sports federations, a move that follows investigations by the USKOK anti-corruption office into several such bodies. Šimunić stated that his ongoing work is a continuation of his six-year effort to obtain information from public authorities in his free time. He began by examining local government expenditures and then turned his attention to sports associations.

Šimunić asserts that a ruling from the High Administrative Court grants him the right to request information from sports associations. He believes that every citizen has the right to know how public money is being spent. "I just wanted to see how our money is spent, that's all, the Olympic Committee. And after that, it slowly rolled along, so I sent requests to fifteen larger sports federations in Croatia to see how they spend our money," Šimunić explained. He noted that the responses he received suggested he was "fishing" or acting for political purposes, questioning why federations would withhold data if everything were transparent.

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I just wanted to see how our money is spent, that's all, the Olympic Committee. And after that, it slowly rolled along, so I sent requests to fifteen larger sports federations in Croatia to see how they spend our money.

Šimunić expressed particular alarm over a meeting called by the Croatian Olympic Committee (HOO) with major federations to discuss how to respond to his information requests. This, he said, was his biggest red flag. Among the most bizarre findings, he cited a sports federation director whose monthly card spending exceeded the average mayor's salary. Another federation reportedly withdrew over 100,000 euros in cash, a significant sum in an era of digital payments and e-invoices.

The mayor described the reaction of the athletics federation as the most absurd. He claims that on the same day he submitted his information requests, the federation's associates contacted him that afternoon, offering to build an athletics track in Oroslavje. Šimunić believes that the scandals in sports federations are the most significant in the history of Croatia and that if change does not occur now, it never will. He urged national unity against corruption, stating, "We all have one big problem, and that is corruption. That is our general and common point. Not Ustaše and Partisans, not left and right, not ideology. Our problem is that someone is spending our money transparently and perhaps putting it in their pocket."

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We all have one big problem, and that is corruption. That is our general and common point. Not Ustaše and Partisans, not left and right, not ideology. Our problem is that someone is spending our money transparently and perhaps putting it in their pocket.