SPINS faces new accusations against the leadership of Olimpija: There is a possibility of a forged signature or document in its entirety
Photo: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida
Football players of Olimpija are sweating it out in Turkey, while the SPINS union continues its battle for four players who have been crossed out and removed from the team by the Dragons. The whole story has been unfolding since the beginning of the year, and now the SPINS union has come forward with new serious allegations against the leadership of the current Slovenian champion. Among other things, the SPINS union even mentions forgery of a signature or a document in its entirety, and also claims that, at the explicit request of the club’s leadership, the players had to undergo a COVID-19 test, and that too in Croatia!
Consequently, the SPINS union has reported the club’s leadership in Ljubljana to the police for alleged harassment and extortion of the four football players, who are currently training with Olimpija’s youth team.
SPINS Union Press Release:
The Union of Professional Football Players of Slovenia (SPINS) reported the leadership of the national champions, NK Olimpija, to the police yesterday for alleged harassment and extortion of four football players. The day before, the process of determining elements of the employment relationship was initiated at the Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia for Work.
As we wrote days ago, at the beginning of preparations for the spring part of the championship, NK Olimpija Ljubljana deliberately separated four players from the first team, namely the current team’s top scorer, Portuguese Rui Pedra, Mustafa Nukić, young Austrian international Pascal Juan Estrada, and former Serbian international Marko Mijailović. The club no longer counts on this quartet for this season, so we are convinced that their actions are forcing them into an early termination of the contract.
The mentioned quartet did not travel with the team for preparations in Turkey. Today, they trained with Olimpija’s youth team, which is a strict violation of the uniform contract for professional football playing in Slovenia.
This time, with the aim of achieving its goal, the club handled the matter in an extremely unusual, inappropriate, and malicious manner. Some players received a request to undergo a coronavirus test at a health institution in Croatia. One of the players, who subsequently decided to undergo an official PCR test in Ljubljana and proved to be negative, then received a request on the same day to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging examination at the same institution in Croatia.
Health problems could justify the absence from the first team’s preparations, but it is interesting that the club’s leadership chose a hospital in Croatia for specialist examinations. Complications with health do not end there. The suspicion increased when the player who received the request for a health examination with magnetic resonance imaging received a certificate from the club stating that he was injured. The doctor who examined him signed it more than three months ago, and the player trained normally with the team and played matches before the winter break, except for a hardly understandable human error, we believe that there is only a possibility of a forged signature or a document in its entirety.
“The current situation constitutes a violation of labor and criminal legislation,” says SPINS President Dejan Stefanović, who simultaneously claims that three of the mentioned quartet of players were also penalized with the withdrawal of December earnings due to alleged communication with the media. “The club can only prohibit communication about the strategy and tactics of the game and other content that affects the team’s result on the field,” Stefanović adds, emphasizing that freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights.
In this situation, the only proper solution for the quartet of players is either loaning them to other environments or reaching an agreement on the mutual termination of the contract. If the situation in the club is not resolved, the players will have to initiate contract termination proceedings, and SPINS will also demand sanctions against the club and all those responsible from the Football Association of Slovenia.
But this is not just a Slovenian problem; this week, the footballers’ union in France (UNFP) also filed a similar complaint. Through the reputable law firm Temime, they decided to report to the state prosecutor against all clubs that extorted or in some other way harassed players. The UNFP union found that extortion practices were widespread, with 180 professional footballers being under illegal pressure from clubs to extend, terminate, or change the terms of their contracts. The most exposed case was that of Kylian Mbappé, who was excluded from the first team of Paris Saint-Germain for 24 days last summer because he refused to extend his contract for an additional year until July 2025.
“The role of the union is to ensure the protection of each of the players involved, always. We decided to file a complaint on behalf of all professional football players playing in France, and we ask the prosecutor to initiate a preliminary investigation and criminal proceedings against anyone the investigation reveals irregularities,” adds the leadership of the UNFP union.
This text was automatically translated using AI.
Author: editorial Football Planet