Charges withdrawn against former football executives

The State Attorney has withdrawn embezzlement charges against three former top executives of the Czech Football Association. The association’s former chairman Pavel Mokrý, Deputy-Chairman Václav Chvála and former Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Ladislav Malý were detained by the police in July over controversial accounting surrounding ticket sales for the Euro 2004 championships in Portugal. The police said that Football Trading, the association’s marketing agent, had received 50 million crowns from selling tickets for Czech team games in Portugal five years ago. Allegedly, only 20 million appeared in the company's accounting books, and there was no trace of the remaining 30 million crowns. The State Attorney is said to have withdrawn the charges due to inadequate evidence and has called for further investigation.