Modric slams ‘careless’ FIFA

Luka Modric has slammed FIFA for making Croatia fulfil their abandoned fixture against Kosovo barely a day later. “It doesn’t care about us players.”

Croatia’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Kosovo was halted on Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch, but the game was hastily rearranged for 24 hours later and FIFA refused to push back their clash with Turkey on Tuesday.

“What happened affected us on the pitch,” the Real Madrid midfielder said after the game, which saw his country win 1-0 thanks to a late Domagoj Vida goal.

“On Saturday night, we were told that we weren’t going to play, so we slept for longer than usual, about two or three hours more.

“This morning, we had to wake up like we were in the army because we had to play today.

“It’s not adequate preparation for such an important match. FIFA has again demonstrated that it doesn’t care about us players, only if a game is played.

“Playing on this pitch was dangerous, but it wouldn’t have cared if a player got injured.

“The important thing was that we had to play against Turkey and [FIFA] didn’t want to move that game to Wednesday.”

Tags 2018 World Cup Croatia FIFA Kosovo Luka Modric
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