ZORAN BAHTIJAREVIC

Prim. Zoran Bahtijarević, MD, FEBPS, was born in Split, Croatia on 5th March 1964. He graduated from Zagreb University Medical School in 1989 and obtained his medical licence in 1990. After his residency he completed the training in Paediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Zagreb in 1997. He remained working in the same institution as a paediatric surgeon until 2022.

He was the President of the Croatian Society of Paediatric Surgery in two terms, from 2015 – 2022 and a member of the Executive Board of the World Federation of Associations of Paediatric Surgeons (WOFAPS) from 2016 to 2022. From 2019 to 2022 he obtained the role of the President of WOFAPS Foundation.

At the same time, he was engaged with the Croatian Football Federation, first as a team doctor of the Youth national teams 1992-2000, then U21 national team from 2000 to 2002 and finally the National A-team doctor from 2002-2022. Additionally, he also acted as one of UEFA’s Doping Control Officers from 2007-2022 as well as a member of the UEFA Medical Committee from 2015-2017, finally being promoted to their 3rd vice-president from 2017-2020 and Deputy Chairman as of 2020.

In 2020 he started working for UEFA on the Return To Play Protocol and became the Chairman of the UEFA Protocol Advisory Panel supporting UEFA in the continuation of their competitions during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was assigned as the UEFA EURO2020 Chief Medical Officer and after being UEFA Chief Medical Advisor in 2021, he joined UEFA as the Chief of Medical officer in January 2022, being the first doctor employed by the organisation. After merge of UEFA Medical and UEFA Anti-Doping Units, he became the Chief of UEFA Medical and Anti-Doping Unit as of 1st May 2024.