Football in Croatia

Overview of association football in Croatia

Football in Croatia is the country's most popular sport. The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) is the governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the nation, both professional and amateur. The national and club teams are governed by UEFA in Europe and FIFA in global competitions. The history of the sport is delineated by a variety of unofficial sides as Croatia was not an independent entity until the late 20th century. The club teams that compete domestically do so in the top flight, the Croatian Football League (Hrvatska nogometna liga), the second tier, First Football League (Prva NL), the third tier, Second Football League (Druga NL), and fourth tier Third Football League (Treća NL). The counties of Croatia likewise compete in a regional league system. Club teams contest their respective league championships, the Croatian Cup, and the Croatian Super Cup. The two largest club teams are Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split, who share a rivalry. The national team of Croatia is a major sporting franchise in European and international football. They have qualified for every major tournament with the exception of Euro 2000 and the 2010 World Cup. Croatia has reached the quarter finals of the UEFA European Championship twice (1996, 2008) and finished second in the UEFA Nations League in 2023. At the FIFA World Cup, Croatia were the runners up once (2018) and third on two occasions (1998, 2022), securing three World Cup medals.

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, with local Fiumans also taking part in the game. 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. In 1890 the first school based football clubs are founded by high school students in Rijeka. 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, both multi sport association with very popular football sections. 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. won by Forza e Coraggio, which was then forced by the authorities to change its name to U. S. Ragusa. Hajduk, Građanski and SK Opatija were all founded in the same year, 1911. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Club Year City, RegionDescription Dissolution Club Iris1899Pula, Austrian LittoralFootball section opened in August 1899. Dissolution date unknown. ?Veloce Club Polese1899Pula, Austrian LittoralFootball section of cycling club. Dissolution date unknown. ?PNIŠK1903Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1909HAŠK1903Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1945Club Sportivo Olimpia1904Rijeka, Corpus SeparatumLater renamed to NK Rijeka. Still ActiveFiumei Atletikai Club1905Rijeka, Corpus SeparatumDissolution date unknown. ?Segesta Sisak1906Sisak, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaStill ActiveGiovine Fiume1906Rijeka, Corpus Separatum1912HŠK Concordia1906 Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1945Törekves SE1907Rijeka, Corpus SeparatumDissolution date unknown. ?AŠK Croatia1907 Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1945HŠK Victoria Sušak1908Sušak, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1948GŠK Marsonia1909Slavonski Brod, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaStill ActiveAssociazione Sportiva Edera1910Pula, Austrian Littoral1926Forza e Coraggio1910Dubrovnik, Kingdom of DalmatiaIn 1912 renamed Unione Sportiva di Ragusa. Dissolution date unknown. ?Società Ginnastica e Scherma Zara1910Zadar, Kingdom of DalmatiaDissolution date unknown. ?NK Zmaj1910Zadar, Kingdom of DalmatiaLater renamed in NK Arbanasi. Still ActiveCalcio Spalato1910Split, Kingdom of DalmatiaDissolved in the '20s'20sNogometni Odjel Sokola Opatija Volosko1911Opatija, Austrian LittoralLater renamed NK Opatija. Still Active1. HŠK Građanski1911 Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaLater renamed to NK Dinamo. Still ActiveUnione Sportiva1911Dubrovnik, Kingdom of DalmatiaDissolution date unknown. ?NK DAVOR1911Dubrovnik, Kingdom of DalmatiaDissolution date unknown. ?HŠK Hajduk1911 Split, Kingdom of DalmatiaStill ActiveDFV Vorwärts Abbazia1912Opatija, Austrian LittoralGerman minority club. Official dissolution date unknown. ?Tornai SE1912Rijeka, Corpus SeparatumHungarian minority club. Official dissolution date unknown. ?HRŠD Anarh1912 Split, Kingdom of DalmatiaLater renamed to RNK Split. Still ActiveHŠK Slaven1912 Koprivnica, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaStill ActiveOlimpija Suhopolje1912Suhopolje, Kingdom of Croatia Slavonia1916SK Lav1913 Knin, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaLater renamed to HNK Dinara. Still ActiveHŠK Šparta1913Zagreb, Kingdom of Croatia SlavoniaLater renamed to NK Šparta Elektra. Still Active

Hajduk Split is the only Croatian club to date—either during the Yugoslav period or since independence—to have played in the knockout stages of the European Cup or UEFA Champions League, having reached the quarter finals on three occasions (in 1975–76, 1979–80 and 1994–95). Dinamo Zagreb have qualified for the Champions League group stage on eight occasions (in 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2019–20 and 2022–23) but have yet to progress further. 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.

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, 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 First League of Futsal is the top tier futsal competition where majority of Croatia national futsal team is selected. There are also national competitions in other minifootball versions.

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.