By DPA
Belgrade : Serbian police have detained Dragan Dzajic, a national and Red Star Belgrade football official and player legend under charges of serious corruption, media reports said.
Dzajic, 61, was brought in within a massive probe into corruption in Serbian football. Unconfirmed reports say that he was under suspicion of embezzling some $7.4 million.
The former Red Star president and basketball Olympian in 1960s, Vladimir Cvetkovic and another Red Star official were also brought in, reports said.
The Serbian Football Association, which named Dzajic director of all national teams, was due to issue an announcement later in the day.
A lightning-fast left-winger, Dzajic was the most capped player of former Yugoslavia, with 85 appearances, in which he scored 23 goals between 1961 and 1978.
After playing for Red Star and Bastia of France, he retired from to serve as an executive and president of Red Star. In 2003, Serbia and Montenegro elected him as its Golden Player for the 50th anniversary of the European football federation UEFA.
The action against Dzajic came after last week’s arrest of the owner of the first-division side Vojvodina on corruption charges and following the raid on Red Star offices in December.
Local reports claim that Serbian football was thoroughly corrupted by organised crime that controlled money-laundering schemes and the trade of players.
Police had said that it aimed to crack the powerful complex of organised crime and football, operating millions of dollars from money-laundering, racketeering, match-rigging and trade of players.