No Brazil for Josip Šimunić as Court of Arbitration Upholds FIFA Ban
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
105-cap veteran Josip Šimunić’s dream of playing in his third World Cup has ended on Monday, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland upheld FIFA’s 10-match ban…
Šimunić was suspended by football’s world governing body FIFA for 10 matches, ordered to pay a fine of 30,000 Swiss francs (£20,700), and banned from entering the stadium for any of the country’s matches at the World Cup in Brazil for what FIFA declared was ‘discriminatory behaviour’ when he chanted ‘Za Dom’ during post-match celebrations after Croatia beat Iceland last November during their World Cup play-off match.
Šimunić’s Germany-based lawyer Davor Prtenjača, who initiated an online petition earlier this year which gathered over 285,000 supporters, was quietly confident that CAS would overturn FIFA’s earlier decision, but it was not to be as CAS upheld the ban after a six hour hearing last week in Switzerland. The decision is likely to spell the end of Šimunić’s international career.
