Hajduk Split have had a terrible start to the season in Croatia, especially by their elite standards, sitting 14 points behind leaders Dinamo Zagreb after 12 games up until this weekend. Fan anger — though with no reports of any incidents or threats — prompted police to step-up security during training and at matches this week.

The discontent has grown to the extent that supporters, known as the Torcida, decided to boycott this week’s always-intense derby match against Dinamo Zagreb at Hajduk’s Poljud stadium. Attendance at a game that is usually the highlight of the Croatian season was just 3,500; more than that (4,000) showed up at the fans’ alternate viewing party, held at Hajduk’s old stadium, Stadion Stari plac, where candles were lit in hope of Hajduk’s resurrection as they watched the game on a big screen.

Well, OK, as is typical of Torcida, they lit more than just candles:

One Torcida official told the Croatian Times that  “We will not be at the game because we also want to send a message to overpaid players who have disgraced Hajduk with their play.”

This left the atmosphere at the home game at the mercy of visiting team Dinamo Zagreb’s infamous supporters the Bad Blue Boys who according to Croatian Soccer Report, were for the first time “heard loud and clear” away at Hajduk. Dinamo has won four straight titles, and doubtless, this run of success for their biggest rivals is as much at the heart of Hajduk supporters’ discontent as recent poor results.

As it turns out, either the supporters’ dramatic action spurred the team to respond or their absence didn’t make any difference: Hajduk upset the league leaders 2-1.

The evening consisted of three mini-matches. The first, pitted team CRO against Croatian media and celebrities. The second match involved the 1990 Dinamo Zagreb team vs AC Milan’s. Boban played with Dinamo for the first half then switched to Milan’s squad for the second half. In the finale, the Croatian bronze medal team from France “98 was matched up against the world stars. Taking part were players including Suker, Matheaus, Rui Costa, Rivaldo, Maldini, and Dessailly.

One of the highlights of the evening, for myself, came with about ten minutes remaining in the match. Goran Ivanisevic (Wimbledon tennis champion) came on in place of Boban. To the delight of the crowd, Ivanisevic scored on his first possession. The stands went mad.

World stars won 2-1.

Then, Tudjman died and since then, nothing has been resolved. Everybody agrees and knows that something must be done, but the fact that the best way to get a proper national stadium is to tear the existing one down and build a completely new one is a very touchy subject. Where will Dinamo play meanwhile? No national side playing in Zagreb? It’s a site of cultural heritage, the stadium where Croatian independence started with Zvonimir Boban’s defense of a Dinamo supporter, you want to tear that down? These are some of the questions raised by those delaying a decision.

The club was founded in 1911 in Prague by four Croatian students. One will very often see this version of the crest, where the year of founding is replaced with the number “1″, twice on each side (“11″), which is used to merge the year of founding with a homage to the “four” Croation students.

Photo credit: g_travels on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion photo pool.

The 13th May 1990 is referring to the day when Red Star Belgrade visited Zagreb and chaos erupted on the stands, ending with a pitch invasion where Zvonimir Boban famously kung-fu kicked a police officer who was beating a Dinamo Zagreb supporter. Belgrade fans had broken down the fence on the southern stands then started to fight with home supporters. The police stood back and simply watched it, which was not well taken by the hardcore Dinamo fans on the opposite end (outside which the memorial is standing) who in turn broke down their fence and took to the field.

It is claimed that this day played a decisive part in the war for independence erupting, a war in which many at the front lines were recruited from the Bad Blue Boys.

Each year the BBB president visits “the shrine of the Croatian knights” to honour those who wore the BBB badge on their uniform.

Here’s a news report with video of that day in May 1990:

But let’s start with something less extreme from the Bad Blue Boys – below is a video of a remarkable piece of choreographed pyrotechnics showing their support for Dinamo in flares. Note that they’re somehow able to use an entire stand to do this during an ongoing game. Either no-one else attends their games, or they have some serious sway with the authorities.