Former Birkirkara goalkeeper Miroslav Kopric has spoken of the hardship he and his family suffered after he was publicly 'falsely accused' of match-fixing. He has also promised court action against all involved in 'ruining my career and my life'.
The allegations had been made by club president Adrian Delia, now a candidate for the PN leadership, and the club committee.
The claims were made in December last year.
Mr Kopric, a Croatian, recalled that he was arrested by the police for 48 hours and interrogated several times but no evidence was found.
"The outcome of the investigation was that there is no evidence that I was involved in match fixing, I was never taken to the court and the police closed the investigation," he said.
"When all of this started, I voluntarily handed to the people from FC Birkirkara my laptop, 2 mobile phones and a hard disc so they can check and determine that their accusations were false. They handed the items to the police. Today, almost seven months after, they are still keeping my stuff because the court expert, did not finish his report. It appears that he is overloaded with work, which is really not our problem, and he has no time to finish what he was tasked. It is absolutely unacceptable for us as this whole story is taking to long."
Mr Kopric said the false accusations ruined his football career and his life and affected his family.
READ: Birkirkara FC committee strongly deny 'kidnapping' or coercing goalkeeper
"Beacuse of the stress caused by these lies, my wife spent 2 months in a hospital for pregnancy complications and gave birth to our twins 6 weeks earlier. My 4-year old daughter has experienced trauma as well as my parents. Because of these false accusations I couldn't do my job for last six months and get paid for it, because nobody wanted to hire a goalkeeper who was ''involved'' in match fixing. And I cannot prove that I am innocent because one court expert in Malta doesn't respect the deadlines."
Mr Kopric said he had no other option than to file a case before the European Court of Human Rights as well as the Maltese court. He has already filed a case against Birkirkara FC before FIFA for not paying his salary.
He said he was appealing to the Maltese authorities to 'finish this story' and said he would take legal actions against all those responsible for ruining his career and his life.
Read: MFA chief pledges ‘unreserved support’ for Birkirkara president
"The only purpose of me coming to Malta was to do my job and play football, to help FC Birkirkara to achieve their goals and to earn money for my family. As in July 2016., when the club made his biggest achievement in the history of Maltese football and passed to third round of UEFA cup, I was a hero, in December the club accused me of betrayal and ruined my life without any single evidence. I was never in my whole life involved in any illegal actions and have never had any problems with the police until I came to Malta and just wanted to do what I like the most- play football," he said.