A plaque in Rijeka marking the site of the 1873 football game
The earliest record of football in Croatia dates from 1873, when English engineers and technicians for Stabilimento tecnico Fiumano played in Rijeka against the engineers building the local railway line,[8] with local Fiumans also taking part in the game.[9] The first recorded football match in the Kingdom of Croatia was played in 1880 in Županja, between English workers of The Oak Extract Company and local youths.[8] In 1890 the first school-based football clubs are founded by high school students in Rijeka.[9] The sport was further popularized in Croatia by Franjo Bučar in the 1890s.[10] The Croatian translation of the sport's name, nogomet, was coined by the linguist Slavko Rutzner Radmilović in 1893 or 1894.[11] The name was adopted into Slovenian as well. In 1896, the first edition of the Rules of the Football Game in Croatian was printed in Zagreb.[12]
The earliest officially registered association football clubs were founded in Pula before the turn of the century, when in August 1899 the locals founded Club Iris and later in the same year Veloce Club,[13] both multi-sport association with very popular football sections.[14] The first clubs to be founded in the then Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia per se were HAŠK and PNIŠK, in 1903. In Rijeka, the Hungarian-leaning Fiumei Atletikai Club was founded in 1905 and the multicultural CS Olimpia in 1904, but Olimpia's football section may have held its first seating only in 1906 (the date is still debated among historians). In the same year, the Giovine Fiume club was founded by the Italian irredentist youth of the city and HŠK Concordia was established in Zagreb. između HAŠK-a i PNIŠK-a.
The first public football match in Croatia was played on Marulić Square in Zagreb on October 28, 1906 between HAŠK and PNIŠK and ended with a score of 1:1. This match was played according to the then only valid English rules. The HAŠK team then consisted of the following players: Hinko Würth, Josip Besednik, Hugo Kuderna, Josip Novak, Ivo Lipovšćak, Anđelo Grgić, Marko Kostrenčić, Dragutin Albrecht, Marko Kren, Vladimir Erbežnik, Zvonimir Bogdanović; while the following played for PNIŠK: Dragutin Baki, Jan Todl, Veljko Ugrinić, Schreiber, Kiseljak, Pilepić and Uhrl.[12]
Among the other early clubs are Victoria and Olimpija Karlovac, created in 1908. 1908 also saw the first recorded win by a Croatian city-based club against an English side, when CS Olimpia beat the official football team of the Cunard Line ship RMS Brescia 1-0.[9] In 1909 GŠK Marsonia started playing in Slavonski Brod and Rijeka's then strongest side Fiumei AC was invited to play officially in the Hungarian Championship, but turned down the offer. In the same year, Segesta officially appeared for the first time in Sisak.
In 1910 the club Forza e Coraggio was founded in Dubrovnik and the Società Ginnastica e Scherma in Zadar officially opened its football section. The two would battle in the first Dalmatian Championship in 1911,[15] won by Forza e Coraggio, which was then forced by the authorities to change its name to U.S. Ragusa.[16]Hajduk, Građanski and SK Opatija were all founded in the same year, 1911.[17] The first football club to be founded purely by Croats was Bačka in Subotica in 1901, in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary and is today Serbia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zrinjski Mostar was founded by Croats in 1905 and was the first club to be founded in that country. The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) itself was created in 1912, which was also the year of the first Croatia and Slavonia championship.[18]
The football section of HŠS 1912-13. organized the first Croatian football championship, in which clubs exclusively from Zagreb, Građanski, HAŠK, Concordia, AŠK Croatia and Tipografski športski klub Zagreb participated. This first championship was not completed due to unsportsmanlike behavior, and the new one was interrupted in 1914 due to the war.[12] In 1912 the Dalmatian championship was won by Società Bersaglieri and in its third season by Calcio Spalato, who then played and lost against the strongest club from the Trieste region, Edera.[15]
Teams from the Republic of Croatia which competed in the Yugoslavian football championship from 1923–1940
After World War I, Croats played a major part in the founding of the first football federation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later named the Football Association of Yugoslavia. Its headquarters were initially in Zagreb before moving to Belgrade in 1929. This was an era when great talents like Ico Hitrec dominated the national fields. In 1927, Hajduk Split took part in the inaugural Mitropa Cup, a tournament dedicated to the best Central European clubs.
Croatia itself played its first international football match as a representative team of the Banovina in a match held on April 2, 1940 against Switzerland. During World War II, the Croatian Football Federation joined FIFA as a representative of the Independent State of Croatia, but this was contentious and short-lived, as was the fascist puppet-state of which it was part. After the war, football was resumed within the institutional framework of the second Yugoslavia. The communist regime in the new state quickly moved to apply a damnatio memoriae to all club names and brands involved in the Croatian or Italian championships or which bore obviously Croatian or Italian national names. The government in Belgrade justified the rearrangement of all local football clubs with its plan to copy the Stalinist model of athletic organisation, merging all local clubs into omni-comprehensive sport unions—often forcing local institutions and party representatives to enact a total rebranding of the local clubs' identities—and thus bring them into line with communist goals and ideals.[19]
Following these policies, Građanski was rebranded into NK Dinamo Zagreb, U.S. Fiumana (CS Olimpia's name under the Italian fascist regime) became S.C.F. Quarnero in Yugoslavia, ŽŠK Victoria became NK Lokomotiva in Zagreb, and dozens of other less famous clubs followed suit. Most clubs had henceforth to explicitly display loyalty to the new regime, and it was common for them to feature the communist red star as part of a new emblem, often paired with proletarian sounding and appealing identities.[20] Among the victims of these changes, some clubs were completely disbanded, including top sides Concordia, PNIŠK and HAŠK, as well as major ethnic Croat clubs in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, SAŠK and HŠK Zrinjski Mostar. One of the very few large Croatian clubs to avoid restructuring was Hajduk Split, who had refused to participate in the fascist Croatian competition and had strong links with the partisan army of Tito.
As Tito broke with Stalin, in the 1950s most sport unions reverted to purely football clubs. Over the following decades, Croatian clubs performed well in the Yugoslav First League and the Yugoslav Cup. Hajduk and Dinamo formed one half of the Big Four of Yugoslav football (the other two being FK Partizan and Red Star Belgrade). Rijeka won 2 Yugoslav cups. In 1967, Zlatko Čajkovski of German club Bayern Munich became the only Croatian manager to win the European Cup Winners' Cup. After Croatia gained independence in the 1990s, the football federation was reconstituted and joined the international associations.[21] The Croatian internationals from the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship-winning team went on to achieve more success, spawning the "golden generation" who finished in third place at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.[22] Since then, Croatia has continued to produce top players. At the more recent Euro 2008, they famously beat 2006 FIFA World Cup bronze medalists Germany 2–1 in a shock win but exited the tournament courtesy of a penalty shoot-out defeat to Turkey in the quarterfinals. The national team's best performance came at the 2018 World Cup, where they finished as runners-up, losing 2–4 to France in the final. Croatia followed the achievement by again finishing third in the 2022 World Cup, after a 2–1 win over Morocco.
Both Dinamo and Hajduk have advanced past the round of sixteen of the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League, Hajduk played in the semi-finals in 1983–84 and the quarterfinals in 1985–86. They also reached the UEFA Cup's last sixteen in 1981–82 and 1986–87, while Dinamo Zagreb reached the quarterfinals in 2020–21 and the last sixteen in 1997–98 and 2018–19.
Dinamo Zagreb had success winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1967 which is the only European trophy won by Croatian clubs. Dinamo also reached the final four years earlier in 1963 but suffered a loss to Valencia. In 1970–71 season, they reached third round. Croatian clubs also had success in the defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Both Dinamo Zagreb (1960–61) and Hajduk Split (1972–73) reached the semi-finals of the competitions. Dinamo have also reached the quarterfinals in 1964–65 and 1969–70, while Hajduk were eliminated at that stage in 1977–78. UEFA Cup Winners' Cup is also the only European competition that has seen Croatian clubs other than Dinamo and Hajduk reach the advanced stages. Rijeka reached the quarterfinals in the 1979–80 edition, while Varteks advanced to the quarterfinals in 1998–99, the last edition of the competition.
Best results
The table below lists Croatian clubs' best results in elimination rounds of European club competitions:
The following table lists all Croatian players who are credited to win an international final (either appeared in the final, being unused substitutes or were in the squad in earlier rounds of the tournament). It does not include Croatians who were considered Yugoslav players prior to Croatia's independence in 1991.
The following articles detail major results and events in each footballing season since the early 1990s, when the Croatian First Football League was established. Each article provides final league standings for that season, as well as details on cup results, Croatia national football team results, and a summary of any other important events during the season.
According to many surveys conducted by multiple newspapers, the most popular club in Croatia is Dinamo Zagreb which is also the most successful club. Their main rivals are Hajduk Split, followed by HNK Rijeka and NK Osijek.
Futsal
Futsal, called mali nogomet (lit. "small football") in Croatia, is also widely played and is sometimes considered as a mini football league. It is often taught in schools and also played by football professionals as a pastime.
The Croatian football fans organize in various fan groups such as the Torcida (Hajduk), Bad Blue Boys (Dinamo), Armada (Rijeka), Kohorta (Osijek), etc.
On the international games, the Croatian fans usually wear the checkerboard colors red and white, as they are on the Croatian coat of arms.
The Croatian Football Federation is the national governing body of football in Croatia. It was originally formed in 1912 and is based in the capital city of Zagreb. The organisation is a member of both FIFA and UEFA, and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in Croatia. The current president of HNS is Marijan Kustić.
The Croatian Football League, abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. It was previously called Prva Hrvatska nogometna liga, but a league structure reorganization from 2022–23 led to name changes for the three top league levels.
Nogometni klub Zagreb, commonly known as NK Zagreb or simply Zagreb, is a Croatian amateur football club based in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. It currently competes in the fifth tier league competition of Croatian football league system, Četvrta nogometna liga Središte Zagreb podskupina A in Croatian since the 2021–22 season and the revision of league in preparation for structure reorganization in a men's league system of Croatian football league system starting from 2022–23 which also led to labeling changes for the league levels.
The Hrvatski nogometni kup, also colloquially known as Rabuzinovo sunce, is an annually held football tournament for Croatian football clubs and is the second most important competition in Croatian football after the HNL championship. It is governed by the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) and usually runs from late August to late May. Cup winners automatically qualify for next season's UEFA Europa Conference League, except when cup winners are also Prva HNL champions, in which case their berth in the Europa Conference League goes to the best-placed team in the Prva HNL who have not qualified for the UEFA competitions through their league performance.
The Croatian Football Super Cup is a football match between the winners of the Croatian national top league and football cup. The Super Cup is always held at the beginning of a new football season, and is only held when different clubs win the two most important competitions in the previous season.
HŠK Građanski, also known as 1. HŠK Građanski or fully Prvi hrvatski građanski športski klub, was a Croatian football club established in Zagreb in 1911 and dissolved in 1945. The club had a huge influence on the development of football in Croatia and Kingdom of Yugoslavia and achieved its greatest success in the period between the two World Wars.
The 1978–79 Yugoslav First League season was the 33rd season of the First Federal League, the top level association football competition of SFR Yugoslavia, since its establishment in 1946. Hajduk Split won the league title.
HAŠK(full name Hrvatski akademski športski klub, English: Croatian Academic Sports Club) was a Croatian football club established in Zagreb in 1903 which ceased operating in 1945. The club was one of the most successful sides in Zagreb and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the period between the two World Wars. Since then several sports clubs have claimed to descend from it, the most significant of which is HAŠK Mladost sports society.
The 1992 Croatian First Football League was the first season of the top Croatian football league. It was the inaugural season of the league established following Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia. Affected by the political and social upheavals stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia and the early stages of the 1991–95 war, the season was drastically shortened and played over the course of less than four months, from 29 February to 13 June.
The 1992–93 Croatian First Football League was the second season of the top football league in Croatia since its establishment after Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia. Games were played from 23 August 1992 to 12 June 1993.
Sport in Croatia has significant role in Croatian culture, and many local sports clubs as well as the Croatian national squads enjoy strong followings in the country. The most enduring sport by far in Croatia is football, and is played on amateur and professional levels amongst all age groups across the entire country. Several other major team sports are handball, basketball and water polo, with clubs in all parts of Croatia. Ice hockey is another popular team sport, namely in the Croatian interior. The most popular individual sports in Croatia are tennis, alpine skiing, and swimming, and to some extent table tennis and chess. Various amateur sport games are popular in Croatia, notably picigin.
Nogometni klub Lokomotiva Zagreb, commonly known as Lokomotiva Zagreb or simply Lokomotiva, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. It competes in the Croatian First Football League, the country's top division. Founded in 1914, the club's only period of success came in the late 1940s and early 1950s before spending most of the following five decades in lower-level leagues.
Vedran Ješe born is a Croatian footballer who currently plays for HNK Primorac Biograd na Moru.
The Croatian Academy Football League is the top level of youth football in Croatia. It is contested by academy teams of First League clubs and is organised by the Croatian Football Federation.
In the new millennium, Dinamo Zagreb continued to land more trophies, winning at least one domestic competition per season, save for 2004–05, when they were knocked–out of the Croatian Cup and finished seventh in Prva HNL.
Stadion Koturaška, also referred to as Građanski Stadium was a football stadium in Zagreb, Croatia. It was located at Koturaška Road in today's Trnje neighbourhood and was home to the football club Građanski Zagreb for more than 20 years, from 1924 to 1945. After World War II and the dissolution of Građanski it was taken over by the newly formed NK Dinamo Zagreb who used is as their home ground until 1948 when they moved to their present-day home at Stadion Maksimir. Koturaška was eventually abandoned and demolished in the early 1950s.
Football in Yugoslavia had different levels of historical development depending on the geographical regions. Following the extreme popularity of the sport in Central Europe, it soon became the most popular sport in the territories of Yugoslavia as well.
Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as GNK Dinamo Zagreb or simply Dinamo Zagreb, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won twenty-four Prva HNL titles, sixteen Croatian Cups, еight Croatian Super Cups, and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The club has spent its entire existence in top flight, having been members of the Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1991, and then the Prva HNL since its foundation in 1993.
Football is the most popular sport, both in terms of participants and spectators, in Zagreb. Zagreb has several of Croatia's significant football clubs.
↑ Mills, Richard (2018). The Politics of Football in Yugoslavia: Sport, Nationalism and the State. London, U.K.: I.B. Tauris. pp.77, 80, 82, 87–89. ISBN9781784539139.
Marković, Ivan (December 2012). "O počecima hrvatskoga nogometa"[On the beginnings of the Croatian word nogomet (E. football)](PDF). Croatica (in Croatian). 6 [36] (6 [56]): 305–328. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
External links
League321.com – Croatian football league tables, records & statistics database. (in English)
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