The head coach was expected on Wednesday. But Katanets remained in his native Ljubljana, and commented on the decision to cancel the trip as follows: “As far as I know, neither Lazé (FFM General Secretary Lazar Mitrovsky - B.Sh. ) nor Hari (FFM President Haralampie Haji-Risteski - B.Sh. ) "I don’t have anyone to meet and discuss the details. Nevertheless, I am quite normal in preparing for a meeting with Albania and then with Croatia. We will see what happens next. In the meantime, I can’t say anything more."
The Katanese made it clear that he will remain at home for the time being, and he will only meet with the national team players on February 4 in the Albanian city of Durres on the Adriatic coast, where a short training camp will take place before the game, which will be held in Shkoder three days later.
The reaction of the Slovenian specialist surprised few people, since recent events in the FFM have already shaken the positions of Hadji Risteski and Mitrovsky - the people who invited Katanets to lead the team.
The scandal erupted after the Macedonian media published information according to which the FFM General Secretary got a job in the Federation using a fake diploma. According to the Macedonian Sport newspaper, Mitrovsky claimed to have graduated from the University of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, a request from Macedonia with a request to verify this fact from the former Yugoslav republic was answered very promptly. According to the results of checking the university archives, it was established that Lazar Mitrowski did not graduate from the Sarajevo university.
According to the newspaper, after that Mitrovsky, in collusion with other officials, the FFM committed another illegal act: he acquired another fake diploma, this time testifying that he graduated from the educational institution an order of magnitude lower than university rank. Journalists immediately recalled one of the provisions of the FFM charter, which states that only an applicant with a university degree can be elected to the post of general secretary.
Last Friday, the scandal erupted with renewed vigor. Police inspectors visited the FFM office and demanded a photocopy of Mitrowski’s personal file, upon receipt of which they left the building. On Monday, the football officials received a check by the oversight committee of the government Agency for Youth and Sports, and then the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs. They searched the office and took the documentation that interested them. The search ended only at about 21.00, after which the investigators sealed the doors on all three floors of the federation building. This measure seemed somewhat illogical, since already at 8.30 on Tuesday detectives returned, removed the seals and allowed the FFM employees to take jobs.
Mitrovsky himself was invited to the Interior Ministry on Tuesday for a conversation that ended late at night. The FFM leadership, led by Hadji Risteschi, has already published a press release with comments on the situation. They are accused of everything "people who are extremely interested in taking positions in the FFM, who, through the media, exert unprecedented pressure on the legitimately elected football leadership of the country."
Football officials also claim that the search at the FFM office was conducted in violation of the law, without court authorization. In conclusion, the FFM management announced that they would inform FIFA and UEFA of what had happened.
Meanwhile, the Katanets also more widely voiced their position. He made it clear that if Haji Risteschi left, he would most likely leave the post of head coach of the national team.
“I would not want my words to be interpreted as an ultimatum or a kind of rebellion. But I think that in any company, institution or football club, your departure is logical if there is no person with whom you agreed to cooperate,” the Macedonian Sport coach quotes - According to the hierarchy in the FFM, the post of president of the federation is the highest, followed by the post of head coach of the national team, so it doesn’t matter if any other post in the federation is vacant or not, but if the post of president becomes vacant, to which I obey and agree with dnichestve, I think that for me, there's no place in the Macedonian football. I'm sorry, but is likely to be that way. "
By the way, in early January, the Katanets refused the offer to head the Belgrade “Partizan”, whose colors he defended in the mid-80s. According to the trainer himself, there were several reasons for Belgrade to refuse: work in the Macedonian national team, unwillingness to part with his family (leading the Macedonian national team, Katanets is mainly at home, coming to Skopje only on the eve of matches and training camps) and a promise to himself not to accept teams during the season , which the Slovenian made after an unsuccessful attempt in November 2002 to help get out of the crisis to the Greek Olympiacos. Then, after a series of setbacks, the club's management dismissed Katanets in February 2003.
In the light of recent events in Skopje, the first of the reasons mentioned by the coach may soon cease to be relevant. But, given that Partizan has found a new mentor in the person of Miroslav Dzukic, the potential departure of the Katanets will lead to the fact that there will be one more competent specialist on the football labor exchange.
But the Russian football fans are concerned about the Macedonian scandal primarily from a slightly different angle. It is known how painfully and harshly react to all attempts by government agencies to intervene in the affairs of the national football federations of FIFA and UEFA. There, according to recent reports, they are already considering the possibility of removing the Macedonian teams from the competitions of the official international calendar. The main one is the qualifying campaign for Euro 2008. The exclusion of the Macedonian team from it will significantly change the situation in the qualification group, where the Russian team is playing. As you know, the Macedonians have already taken away two points from one of the favorites of the England national team tournament. Whereas the Russian team managed to win a strategically important victory in Skopje ...
Boyan SHOCH