HNS Press Release

While we remain respectful of the confidential nature of all inquests, regardless of this inquest's purpose -- with which we are, unlike some media sources, unfamiliar with, HNS can firmly state that there have been no indiscretions regarding the handling and distribution of FIFA World Cup tickets by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) and its management. 

Taking into account the immense level of interest and the relatively small number of tickets which FIFA grants national football associations the opportunity to purchase (and which the NAs do not obtain for free), HNS invested continued and large efforts into ensuring that the chance to purchase these tickets was fairly distributed among members of "the football family" (i.e. players and staff, members of the delegation, members of the Executive Committee and the Assembly, county football associations, clubs, and commercial partners of the FA), and to also ensure that a portion of the tickets was made available to the general public.

The assertion that players were promised a pre-arranged number of tickets, which then they did not receive, is false. In fact, our primary concern was to always fully meet the needs of all national team players, whose efforts at the World Cup allowed us to purchase these tickets in the first place. We are saddened that we have to repeat such widely-known facts in response to baseless accusations, which reportedly come from an anonymous source that refuses to come forward. We are further saddened by the fact that a portion of the media has sensationalised a story that is based on unconfirmed information. As an organization, the Croatian Football Federation did not and could not resell tickets for the final of the World Cup, or any other World Cup match, which is easily provable. 

It is, of course, theoretically possible that some individual violated FIFA's regulations and resold tickets, regardless of the way in which these tickets were obtained. However, HNS could not have had any influence or control over this -- and if such situations did occur, we welcome all inquiries into unveiling them.

As always, the Croatian Football Federation will cooperate with the responsible institutions, and we expect that any future inquiries will not be sensationalised -- and especially not in a way which suggests their outcome ahead of time.

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