FIFA has appointed Slovenia’s Slavko Vincic as the World Cup final referee, six years after he was arrested at a “sex party” involving drugs and prostitution and later released without charge.
The biggest soccer match in the world will take place on Sunday afternoon as Argentina defend their crown against European champions Spain.
And it has now been confirmed it will be officiated by ref Vincic, 46, who previously took charge of the 2024 Champions League final when Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund.
However, in 2020, he was caught up in an off-field scandal when he was released by police after being arrested at a party which took place in the Bosnian city of Bijeljina.
Police reportedly held nine women and 26 men after seizing four packets of cocaine, 10 pistols, three protective vests, and more than $11,400 from the party.
Vincic was only held by authorities as a witness and not accused of being involved in the operation.
One of the individuals arrested was Tijana Maksimovic — who later pleaded guilty to international enticement to prostitution.
A one-year sentence was proposed for Maksimovic.
Vincic told Slovenian newspaper Vecer: “I found myself on this ranch by chance. I have my own company, I was in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a business meeting.
“I accepted an invitation to lunch, which turned out to be my biggest mistake. I regret it. I was sitting at a table with my company, all of a sudden the police came and what happened, happened.
Every match of the FIFA World Cup will air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1. If you don’t have cable, you can take advantage of a DIRECTV free trial to stream it all.
Prefer to check out the action live and in person? Shop World Cup 2026 tickets on SeatGeek and make sure to use promo code NYPOST10 for $10 off purchases over $250 at checkout if you’re a first-time SeatGeek user.
“I have nothing to do with the group that was arrested and detained, nor do my business partners. Yes, they really took us to the police, asked [us] as witnesses, when it turned out that we didn’t even know them, we were able to go.”
Meanwhile, Vlado Saijn, president of the Association of Football Referees of Slovenia, leapt to the defence of Vincic.
“He found himself in this place at the wrong time. He was invited to a party where there was a large group of people – he did not know the vast majority,” Saijn said. “I consider this story to be a web of unfortunate circumstances.”
Vincic has taken charge of three games at this summer’s World Cup — Brazil’s draw with Morocco, Algeria’s win over Jordan and Mexico’s victory against Ecuador.
His assistant referees will be fellow Slovenians Tomaz Klancnik and Andraz Kovacic, while the fourth official is Jordanian Adham Makhadmeh.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
