When Nemanja Vidic wrote an open letter criticising the leadership of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) after the country’s failure to qualify for Euro 2020, he knew it would attract attention.As Serbia’s most famous player and a former Manchester United captain, his words carry weight.But he could not have imagined it would lead to the FFS president allegedly sending threatening messages about him ending up “in a ditch”.Vidic was recently approached by reporters from the respected Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a non-governmental organisation that centres on investigative journalism.The 44-year-old was informed by the OCCRP, which had been working in conjunction with Serbian outlet KRIK, that an investigation they were working on had led them to believe Slavisa Kokeza, the former head of the FSS, had sent messages seeking to organise his monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. Fellow footballers Nemanja Matic, Danko Lazovic and Dragan Mrda are also discussed in the messages.This came after Vidic had criticised Kokeza’s leadership and the federation in 2020 following Serbia’s failure to reach the European Championship, eventually staged in 2021 after it was delayed by the Covid pandemic.The messages, obtained by the OCCRP and KRIK, and which have been seen by The Athletic, make clear the sender wanted to convey to Vidic that he should “stay away from the association or he will end up in a ditch”. There is also a reference to the subject of the messages going “to the cemetery”. They are widely believed to have been sent by Kokeza, and the sender describes themself as the “president of the association”.In his first English-language interview since the messages came to light, Vidic tells The Athletic about how the story has affected him.A story published by OCCRP suggested threats were planned against you six years ago. What happened?In mid-May, OCCRP and KRIK visited my home and told me they had obtained encrypted messages from Sky ECC (a now-defunct communication encryption service which EUROPOL said was widely used by criminals and was broken into by European police in 2021) and analysed them.The messages were said to have come from the then-president of the SFF in 2020. They were about me and how to stop me from talking to the media. At the time, I was commentating on the situation in Serbian football. I was living in Milan, Italy, where I stayed after finishing my career with Inter. I hadn’t yet moved back to Serbia, where I am from and where I live.In 2020, I was commenting that the system in Serbian football is not good and suggesting that we had to improve, to change. It was a broken system and football was suffering. It was not about the football players and coaches; it was about the need for more credible people in the Serbian football administration.I was shown the messages. The reporters told me they were going to be published.What was your reaction when you were told of the messages?My first reaction probably came from the type of humour I picked up after living in Manchester for nine years: sarcasm. I said something like: ‘Well, that will be interesting if I ever write a book’.Then I changed after I read the messages and saw how serious the threats were.I was surprised to be told Slavisa Kokeza had spoken to people about me. That I had a tracker fitted to my car. That bad people were talking about attacking me.Slavisa Kokeza during a press conference in 2019 (Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)At the time (of the original comments), some friends called me and said, ‘Listen, Vida, you should be careful’. Friendly advice. But I spoke up because I felt passionately about Serbian football. It’s something I love and something I think should be improved in the interest of the country, of players, coaches and everyone in the system. I know football. I didn’t do any deals to say what I said; I wasn’t part of any structure or political party. They were my thoughts and I was entitled to express them.