The 1963âÂÂ64 Yugoslav First League season was the 18th season of the First Federal League (), the top level football league of SFR Yugoslavia, since its establishment in 1946. Fourteen teams contested the competition, with Red Star winning their 7th title.
At the end of the previous season Sloboda and BuduÃÂnost were relegated. They were replaced by Vardar and Treà ¡njevka.
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In August 1965, at the beginning of the 1965-66 seasonâÂÂfourteen months after the end of the 1963-64 season when the alleged transgressions had taken placeâÂÂFK à ½eljezniÃÂar goalkeeper Ranko Planiniàcame forward with information alleging match-fixing. He claimed that towards the end of the season his club threw its league matches against Hajduk Split and NK Treà ¡njevka in exchange for monetary payouts, which the two relegation-threatened teams decided to pay in order to help themselves avoid the drop to the Yugoslav Second League. Specifically, Planiniàclaimed that the match played on 31 May 1964 in SplitâÂÂHajduk's 4-0 win over à ½eljezniÃÂarâÂÂwas fixed, as well as the following week's match on 7 June 1964 in Sarajevo that saw à ½eljezniÃÂar and visiting Treà ¡njevka play to a 3-3 draw. He was in à ½eljezniÃÂar's goal in both matches.
Planiniàmade the information public in August 1965, fourteen months after the fact, by approaching a VeÃÂernje novine journalist Alija Resuloviàwho in turn took PlaniniÃÂ's testimony in form of an interview that was published by the paper with circulation of 100,000 copies at the time. In his 2006 book Ona vremena, Resuloviàclaims to have contacted FK à ½eljezniÃÂar's president Nusret Mahiàright before submitting the piece for publishing, informing him of PlaniniÃÂ's allegations, seeking comment, and even offering to sit on the information if he (MahiÃÂ) thinks it necessary. Resuloviàfurther claims that MahiÃÂ's response was: "Publish it all! It's all a lie that Planiniàconcocted as revenge after being fined for a training session incident he had caused".
The explosive testimony erupted in a nationwide scandal that would become known as the 'PlaniniÃÂ Affair'. In the years prior, on multiple occasions, Yugoslav First League had been plagued by rumours of widespread match-fixing, however, this was the first instance of a player coming forward as whistleblower and substantiating those claims on the record.
Right after PlaniniÃÂ's allegations hit the press, the Yugoslav FA (FSJ) disciplinary body (disciplinski sud) began an investigation into the two matches PlaniniÃÂ claimed were fixed. Its findings were summarized in an internal memo that was later obtained by various Yugoslav press outlets:
On 27 August 1965, the Yugoslav FA's disciplinary body (disciplinski sud) presided over by Svetozar SaviÃÂ handed out the following penalties:
Disciplinary body president Svetozar Saviàalso announced that the investigation had revealed that à ½eljezniÃÂar was paid YUD1.5 million by Hajduk Split, and YUD4 million by Treà ¡njevka for these matches. Some of the money Treà ¡njevka paid was obtained from the Zagreb Fair where some of Treà ¡njevka's board members were employed at. As a reference point, the price of a daily newspaper at the time was YUD40.
On appeal, the main punishment for the three clubs was reduced to points-deduction. For the 1965-66 season, à ½eljezniÃÂar, Hajduk, and Treà ¡njevka were docked 6, 5, and 5 points, respectively.