The Croatian national football team has hired an assistant who was previously banned for 10 games after leading fans in a Nazi chant.
Retired defender Josip Simunic missed the 2014 World Cup after celebrating Croatia’s playoff victory over Iceland by repeatedly shouting to fans through a microphone: “For the homeland!”
The crowd responded: “Ready!” This chant, called ‘Za dom spremni’, was used during the Nazi occupation of Croatia to encourage support for the fascist regime.
Fifa classed these actions as “discriminatory behaviour,” but the defender denied this, saying: “I did nothing wrong. I'm supporting my Croatia, my homeland. If someone has something against it, that's their problem.”