When faced with two choices, the old Jewish saying goes, choose the third.

On Saturday, the general public in Serbia was anxiously awaiting a decision from the nation’s football governing body (the FSS) on whether it will withdraw its support for Davor Suker – the president of Croatian football federation, the CFF – in his bid for a place on Uefa’s executive committee. Then came the official announcement and it was not what anyone had expected.

With two obvious answers – yes or no – on the table, the FSS chose the third: “We won’t tell you.” A short statement said a conclusion had been reached but that neither the public nor any of the candidates running for Uefa’s ExCo, including Suker, would be told what it was.

“With this stance, our football organisation wishes to show a truly professional attitude towards an important issue, ruling out the possibility of any debates in the media,” the FSS said.

It was a rather absurd turn of events, given that they publicly stated their support for Suker earlier this month, when he was in Serbia presenting the programme he intends to implement if elected to the Exco at Tuesday’s Uefa Congress. It is a set of textbook Uefa guidelines, including “zero tolerance” for racism.

Tomislav Karadzic, the FSS president, then said: “Even if Davor hadn’t come to visit us, he would have received the support from the FSS. Still, I’m happy that he came and he’s always welcome here.”

But on Friday, 10 days later, Karadzic said the support to Suker was “hanging by a thread”. Then on Saturday the public was notified that it would not be told the final decision. So what happened in the meantime and why is this important?

After Suker’s visit, a local organisation representing war refugees stated its discontent and asked the FSS to reconsider its support. Miodrag Linta, representing the Coalition of Refugee Associations, accused the CFF president of being a sympathiser of the Ustase, a fascist regime set up in Croatia during the second world war with the help of Germany and Italy, that was responsible for persecution and mass killings of Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian anti-fascists.

In 1996, the FSS was reminded, “Suker was photographed smiling on the grave of the Ustase leader and war criminal, Ante Pavelic, in Madrid”. He also said, Linta went on to explain, that Croatia were playing at the 2014 World Cup “in the honour of Joe Simunic”, the footballer banned for 10 matches by Fifa for shouting the infamous Ustase slogan “Za dom – spremni!” (For home – ready!) after Croatia’s win in the World Cup qualifier against Iceland.

Suker has indeed said and done these things and has never apologised for it. In 2010, when pictures from his visit to Pavelic’s grave emerged, he said he had nothing to hide. “It is well-known what Davor Suker stands for,” he said, referring to himself in third person, as he often does. “I always fought for Croatia. I went there just like other people go to Berlin or Auschwitz.”

He also declined to condem the Simunic incident, even making him a martyr with his statements. Linta’s organisation, which includes Serbs who fled Croatia during the war of independence in the 1990s, feels that such a man should not be welcome in Serbia. What is more, in 2013 Suker stated Croatia would be the first team to play a friendly against Kosovo – a former region of Serbia that declared independence in 2008 – once the new nation is admitted to Fifa.

The under-pressure FSS took note and appeared to appease the public with the president’s statement, but then decided to withhold its conclusion on the matter. What Suker had promised the Serbs and how Karadzic will vote will remain a secret, like most things do within Uefa and Fifa.

In Croatia, however, most people are more concerned with how Suker is running things in his own federation. Incredibly, the iconic striker who was the top scorer at the 1998 World Cup, when Croatia famously finished third, is hugely unpopular in his own country. Sarcastically called “The Brand” (which refers to his own, much-repeated statement that “Davor Suker is a brand”), he is seen as nothing more than a puppet figure, catering to the interests of his vice-president, the Dinamo Zagreb executive president, Zdravko Mamic.

As CFF president, Suker shows little interest in solving Croatian football’s many problems. Instead, he trots the world seeking support for himself. In November last year, as more than 30,000 people took to the streets in Split to protest against the federation and its leaders, Suker was said to be away on business. It later emerged that he was attending a birthday party of his close friend Worawi Makudi, the Thailand FA president and Fifa Executive Committee member.

But Suker has never concealed his agenda. Asked about his goals as CFF president even before he was elected in 2012, he told Tuttosport: “I want to get into Uefa’s executive committee, where strong lobbying is taking place. After that, the next step is Fifa.”