After a short illness, Velibor Jarovski – Jaro died at the age of 75, Macedonian media reports. He was considered one of the greatest figures in black toto even before it became a global problem. In his own words, he settled the outcome of more than 80 matches.
In the 1980s, Jarovski was the impresario of some of the biggest stars of Yugoslav music – Lepa Brena, Zdravko Čolić “Bielo Dugme” and others. In 1978, he organized a concert by Zdravko Cholic at the Red Star Stadium in front of 70,000 spectators. Because of this activity, he made connections at various levels in the former Yugoslavia.
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Thanks to these contacts, he successfully fixes the results of football matches. Jaro has always claimed that his greatest successes in general were connected with the football club Sloga Jugomagnat (Skopje), which thanks to him managed to win three championship titles in a row (1999, 2000, 2001).
According to his own words, his first fixed match was between Yugokokta and Tikvesh, when he paid 500,000 dinars to get the result he wanted. In 1971, he managed to arrange a match from the lower levels of Macedonian football between Leskoec and Velgosti to finish 134:0.
The former president of the Football Association of Yugoslavia, Slavko Scheiber, declared him the black evil of Yugoslav football. He was accused of fixing 22 matches, while he himself claimed that the number was over 80. He was threatened with 15 years in prison, but Jaro was released after 90 days.
“At every club I had my players who needed money for a new house, a car or to support their lovers. During the concerts I met a lot of football people and that’s how I made connections. Before the matches, I allowed myself to go into the judges’ rooms and forbid the referees to show cards,” admits Velibor Jarovski during his lifetime.
Once the former head of state of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, declared about the charismatic Macedonian: “Don’t bother with him! He does odd things, but he’s very likable.” However, not everything gets away with impunity. While negotiating the losses of Vardar (Skopje) he was shot twice.
“I have arranged matches of European teams and the national team. In one of them, the Macedonian team would have been knocked out by Eire, but the Italian referee gave us two penalties,” said Jaro, possibly referring to the World Cup’98 qualifier in Skopje, when the home team won 3-2 under referee Alfredo Trentalange, and Mitko Stojkovski scores two penalties.
Fixing matches at a high level cannot be done without a solid back, and Jaro admits he had one.
“Naturally, I knew the powerful figures. Otherwise I would still be in prison. One of my defenders was Stane Dolanz, who was the head of the secret police and wanted to become Tito’s successor. I also enjoyed defending the only man who managed to break the championship monopoly of Red Star and Partizan after the breakup of Yugoslavia. We spent the summer months together and played in the casinos,” said the Macedonian, referring to Zeljko Raznatovic-Arkan.
“Gambling is my passion. I play poker and blackjack. I cannot say how much money I carry with me, but there is a case where I lost 5 million German marks. I couldn’t wait to get out of one casino to go to another in Greece, Germany or Austria. I also had my own game room,” claimed Velibor Jarovski during his lifetime.
