Croatia soccer federation denies World Cup ticket scalping claim

Croatia's Luka Modric runs with the ball during the final match between France and Croatia at the 2018 World Cup. (Petr David Josek/AP)

ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia’s soccer federation says its leaders were not involved in suspected scalping of World Cup tickets.

Prosecutors in Zagreb asked police to investigate the illegal re-sale of tickets for Croatia’s 4-2 loss against France in Moscow in July.

FIFA says it is "gathering information regarding the matter" and calls illicit sales "a serious issue."

The federation, whose president is 1998 World Cup striker Davor Suker, has promised to co-operate with the authorities.

It says there were "no indiscretions" by management and staff in handling and distributing a "relatively small number of tickets"

Though it is "theoretically possible that some individual violated FIFA’s regulations and resold tickets," this was outside the federation’s control.

The federation says the chance to buy them was "fairly distributed" among fans and "football family" members.

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