A Brief Guide to Croatian Football

Flag of Croatia

As far as popular football heritage goes, Croatia isn't the first nation that springs to mind. The south east European nation has only competed on the world stage as an independent country since 1998, because up until 1991 they were still a part of the former Yugoslavia.

The flag in brief
The colours on the flag of Croatia, called the Trobojnica (Tricolour), represents the three Croatian Kingdoms; the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Slavonia and the Kingdom of Dalmatia. The red-white-blue tricolour has been used as the Croatian flag since 1848, and the pan-Slavic colours are widely associated with romantic nationalism.

While the Banovina of Croatia existed within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it had a similar flag without the modern crown above the chequy. During the Independent State of Croatia, the flag was like the modern, but without the crown and there was a letter "U" at the top left of the flag.

While Croatia was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia its tricolour was the same, but it had a five-pointed red star with a yellow border in place of the coat of arms.

As part of Yugoslavia

SFR Yugoslavia badge

Yugoslavia was a country of seven merged states (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) from it's creation in 1918 after World War I until it's dissolution in 1991. From 1991-1995 Croatia declared the Croatian War of Independence (part of the Yugoslav Wars) and, due to a United Nations sanction, weren't allowed to play international football matches. This sanction was lifted in 1994 but was too late for them to qualify for USA '94. Croatia made their debut in international competition at Euro '96 and the World Cup at France '98.

As Yugoslavia, Croatia never saw any real recognisable success apart from three quarter-final appearances, 1954, 1958 and 1990, and one semi-final appearance in the inaugural tournament in 1930. The Yugoslav's didn't have a very good record with qualifying either, missing out on the 1934, 1938, 1966, 1970, 1978 and 1986 finals altogether.

Croatia goes it alone
Croatia's debut on the world stage at France '98 was a very successful one and saw them finish third after losing to hosts France in the semi-finals, 2-1, and then beating the Netherlands, 2-1, in the third place match.

Croatia Football Federation badge

There will be a lot of optimism from Croatians for 2014 in Brazil, despite failing to make an impression on the tournament since France '98 and failing to even qualify for South Africa four years ago. The list of names in the 30-man provisional squad show a lot of promise, with big name players such as Real Madrid's Luka Modric, Bayern Munich's Mario Mandzukic, Hull City's Nikica Jelavic, Wolfburg's Eduardo, Southampton's Dejan Lovren and QPR's Nico Kranjcar all likely starters for the Vatreni.

Darijo Srna

Croatia's current captain is their most capped player, 111, Darijo Srna. Srna plays all down the right wing, either as a right-back, right midfielder or right winger and is renowned for his crossing ability. He plays for Shaktar Donetsk but has had interest from Chelsea FC and Bayern Munich in previous transfer windows, however he has remained loyal to Shaktar with whom he has made 414 appearances and scored 37 goals to date.

With the names I just mentioned you'd be forgiven for thinking that this Croatian team stands very good chance of getting through their group; which includes Brazil, Mexico and Cameroon. A lot of football fans and pundits alike are saying Brazil aren't just the favourites to win the group but also to go all the way, so Croatia will have to try and beat Mexico and Cameroon if they are to find themselves in the quarter-finals, and possibly beyond.



Stadion Poljud

Stadiums
Croatia plays its international home games at Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and also the home of Dinamo Zagreb, and has a capacity of 38,000. Stadion Maksimir competes to host Croatia's home games with Stadion Poljud, which is located in Split, a city at the other end of the country to Zagreb. Stadion Poljud has a capacity of 62,000, expanded from 55,000 in the 1980's. Stadion Poljud is a multi-purpose stadium with a running track on the outside of the pitch, and hosted the 1990 European Athletic Championships as well as the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup. The full name of Stadion Poljud is Poljud Ljepotica which means 'The Poljud Beauty' and it is one of the most modern stadiums in European and world football.

Ultras and Nazism


Ultranationalists in Croatia have links back to the fascist and terrorist movement 'Ustasa' in the mid 1940's. They went around Yugoslavia murdering thousands of Serbians, Jews and Romas. The letter U is commonly associated with Croatian Ultras and can be seen at Croatia sporting events.

Ultras have shouted the slogan "Kill the Serb" during some sporting events and according to some Croatian media, a group of youths chanted this during a concert by Marko Perković Thompson.



Croatian Ultras performing the Nazi salute

 During a friendly match between Croatia and Italy in Livorno in 2006, a small group of Croatian fans stood in a swastika formation in response to Italians fans waving communist flags and displayed a picture of Josip Broz Tito; UEFA penalized the Croatian Football Federation for the incident. In 2007, Croatian football fans formed the letter U in a stadium during a match in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In November 2007, it was reported that members of the Hajduk Split supporters' group, Torcida Split, were wearing black T-shirts featuring the words "Hajduk jugend" (alluding to Hitlerjugend, the Hiter Youth) in Fraktur and an eagle atop Hajduk's logo (resembling a Nazi Party symbol).

Hajduk Split supporters

Hajduk Jugend logo











The T-shirts were also being sold on Torcida's website. Stipe Lekić, the secretary of Torcida said to reporters that "Torcida has always been leaning to the right", but rejecting accusations that the T-shirts have connections with Nazism. He said that he was wearing the T-shirt because he liked the symbols.

Also in November 2007, a swastika appeared on Osijek's Gradski vrt football field, together with the slogan "Play, fags!" That was, reportedly done before the match with Međimurje. NK Osijek's and their Kohorta fan association condemned the acts.
In June 2012, the Croatian and German football federations were fined for singing songs associated with Nazism and wearing Nazi symbols.

Finally
There are some aspects of Croatian football fandom and history that the world wants to forget, and some fans go too far in showing their patriotism towards Croatia, however the culture and tribal support is a subject that can't be underestimated and is in many ways, spectacular.

Croatia as an independent nation has 94 years of international competition to catch up on so maybe this could be their year to shine and deliver some kind of success to the small Mediterranean country, and I think they certainly have players that are capable to do something special.