CROATIAN FOOTBALL MARKET OVERVIEW

Introduction to Croatian Football

Football is the most popular team sport in Croatia. The Croatian Football Federation (HNS) is the governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of football in Croatia, both professional and amateur. The national and club teams are governed by UEFA in European and FIFA in global competitions.

Croatia has approximately 1.500 professional and amateur clubs with 150.000 registered players.

Domestic competitions are:

SuperSport HNL (Hrvatska nogometna liga) as a top-tier with 10 professional clubs

SuperSport 1. NL as a second-tier national league with 12 professional clubs

SuperSport 2. NL as a third-tier national league with 16 semi-professional clubs

5 regional fourth-tier leagues with total of 80 semi-professional clubs

Amateur football clubs compete in regional league systems.

Most successful football teams in Croatia are Dinamo Zagreb, Rijeka, Hajduk Split and Osijek ("The Big Four") but in recent years they are regularly challenged in domestic competitions by "smaller" top-tier clubs such as Varaždin, Lokomotiva, Istra, Slaven and Gorica.

Dinamo Zagreb regularly competes in UEFA competitions (Champions League, Europa League and Conference League) together with Rijeka (Europa League and Conference League). It is to be expected that other clubs will also manage to qualify for group stages of UEFA competitions in upcoming seasons.

The Croatian National Team is a major sporting franchise in European and international football. Croatian National Team qualified for every major tournament with the exception of Euro 2000 and the 2010 World Cup with unparalleled success on major tournaments - silver medal on the World Cup 2018 and 2 bronze medals on the World Cup 1998 and the World Cup 2022. Croatian National Team also won silver medal in the 2023 UEFA Nations League.

Ownership of Croatian Football Clubs

Croatian football clubs operate under 2 different possible ownership models - sports joint-stock companies (with issued shares) or association of members (publicly accessible memberships without issuing of shares of the club).

Ownership and controlling influence over most prominent Croatian football clubs from SuperSport HNL and SuperSport 1. NL:

GNK Dinamo Zagreb - association of members (1 member, 1 vote) - 63.000 members (updated on: 1/10/2025)

HNK Rijeka j.s.c. - 70 % Teanna Ltd. (UK), 30 % the City of Rijeka

HNK Hajduk Split j.s.c. - 65,92 % the City of Split, 30,60 % Naš Hajduk, 3,48 % minority shareholders

NK Osijek j.s.c. - 97,07 % NK OS d.o.o. (Hungarian controlled), 2,93 % minority shareholders

NK Istra 1961 - 84,98 % COL d.o.o. (Baskonia-Alaves MCO - Spain), 15,02 % the City of Pula

NK Varaždin j.s.c. - 14,65 % Davor Radić, 10,23 % the City of Varaždin, 8,86 % ZD d.o.o., 66,26 % minority shareholders

HNK Gorica j.s.c. - 100 % Ilija Karamatić (business partner of Russian businessman Denis Shtengelov)

NK Slaven - association of members - controlling influence - Podravka - Croatian largest food and pharma company

NK Lokomotiva - association of members - no controlling influence

HNK Vukovar 1991 j.s.c. - 100 % Vukovar Global Sports d.o.o.

NK Karlovac 1919 - association of members - no controlling influence

NK Rudeš - association of members - controlling influence by CIOS d.o.o. - waste management consultants

NK Sesvete - association of members - no controlling influence

NK Dugopolje - association of members - no controlling influence

HNK Orijent 1919 - association of members - controlling influence by Textum d.o.o.

HNK Cibalia - j.s.c. - 69,93 % the City of Vinkovci, 16,89 % A-TS d.o.o., 13,18 % other minority shareholders

Change of legal status of Croatian football clubs form association of members to sports joint-stock company is a legal procedure initiated by football clubs usually after signing of the strategic partnership agreement or investments made by investors.

The Club Hub offers full support to domestic and international investors in the process of change of legal status of football clubs.

Croatian Football Infrastructure

Public and private investments in football infrastructure in Croatia in recent years are at a record level, and the best (largest) ones are yet to come.

Croatian government significantly increased investments in football infrastructure in recent years and is actively participating in co-funding of the new Croatian Football Federation (HNS) national training camp in Velika Gorica (15 km from Zagreb - the capital and largest city in Croatia).

The Government is also actively participating in the reconstruction of two biggest football stadiums in Croatia - Maksimir (Zagreb) and Poljud (Split), to maintain the country's elite football status.

City of Zagreb started with the reconstruction of Kranjceviceva Stadium with plans to transform it into a modern football venue (UEFA Category 4) featuring an increased capacity of approximately 12,000 seats, all fully covered by end of 2026. Kranjceviceva Stadium will be used by Dinamo Zagreb and Lokomotiva during the reconstruction of Maksimir Stadium. Dinamo Zagreb is planning to build a new modern football training camp in Zagreb to be used by the club and its renowned football academy during and after the reconstruction of Maksimir Stadium.

Private owners of football clubs in Osijek (Hungarian ownership) and Rijeka already completed new stadiums and training facilities in both cities (Opus Arena and Rujevica Stadium). Owners of Istra (MCO from Spain) invested in training facilities with additional plans for expansion and upgrade of the Bale Training Camp used by Istra. Stakeholders of Varazdin invested significant amounts in reconstruction of training facilities and upgrade of stadium in Varazdin.

City of Bjelovar is planning the final reconstruction of local stadium into a modern football venue with capacity of approximately 5,000 fully covered seats by 2027. Similar projects are expected in other Croatian cities with prominent football clubs.

Broadcasting and Marketing Rights

In June 2025 The Executive Board of the Croatian Football Federation accepted the offers of Hrvatski Telekom and SuperSport for TV, marketing, data and betting rights for Croatian football leagues.

Offer of Hrvatski Telekom (part of the Deutsche Telekom) for TV rights amounted to 49.200.000 € for a period from start of season 2026/2027 until the end of 2030/2031 season.

Hrvatski Telekom thus acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the competitions under the authority of the Croatian Football Association, starting with the 2026/2027 season and ending with the 2030/2031 season. All matches of the top tier of the HNL will be broadcast exclusively on MAXSport channels. Hrvatski Telekom will continue to hold exclusive rights to the following competitions: the top tier of the Croatian football, second tier of Croatian football, Croatian Football Cup, Supercup, First Futsal League, Futsal Cup, Women’s First football league, Women’s Cup Final, as well as matches of the national teams: men’s U-21, U-19, U-18, U-17, U-15, men’s futsal national team, and the women’s A national team and futsal national team.

Since the start of the 2022/23 season, Hrvatski Telekom has held the television rights for matches owned by the Croatian Football Federation, which also covers the 2025/2026 season in line with the previous agreement between the Croatian Football Federation and Hrvatski Telekom.

Offer of SuperSport, biggest Croatian betting and gambling company, for marketing, data and betting rights amounted to 10.000.000 € for a period from start of 2026/2027 season until the end of 2029/2030 season.

SuperSport HNL Stadium Attendance

2024/2025 Season was a record season for SuperSport HNL with more than 1.000.000 sold tickets in the top-tier of Croatian football. Previous record was 2023/2024 Season with 956.128 sold tickets.

Football Club Stadium Stadium capacity Sold tickets Average attendance Sold out %

Hajduk Split Poljud 34.198 396.498 22.028 64,41 %

Dinamo Zagreb Maksimir 24.095 205.754 11.431 47,44 %

Rijeka Rujevica 8.279 96.754 5.375 64,93 %

Osijek Opus Arena 13.005 105.109 5.839 44,90 %

Istra Aldo Drosina 8.900 57.480 3.193 35,88 %

Varaždin Varteks 10.800 55.471 3.082 28,53 %

Gorica VG Stadium 5.200 36.435 2.024 38,93 %

Slaven I.K.Apaš 3.134 27.513 1.529 48,77 %

Lokomotiva Kranjceviceva 8.850 27.324 1.518 17,10 %

Šibenik Šubičevac 6.824 27.826 1.465 21,46 %

Highest Transfers from Croatian Football Clubs

Highest SuperSport HNL Player Transfers

Croatian football clubs generate significant revenue from development and sale of players to major European football clubs. Players developed in Croatian football academies have have a strong global reputation, especially for their resilience, tactical discipline and the exceptional talent.

Player Age Transfer fee Transferred to Next Transfer Transfer fee

Joško Gvardiol 19 36.800.000 € RB Leipzig Manchester City 90.000.000 €

Dani Olmo 21 34.200.000 € RB Leipzig Barcelona 55.000.000 €

Marko Pjaca 21 29.400.000 € Juventus

Luka Modrić 22 22.500.000 € Tottenham Real Madrid 35.000.000 €

Josip Šutalo 23 20.500.000 € Ajax

Martin Baturina 22 18.000.000 € Como

Filip Benković 21 14.500.000 € Leicester

Petar Sučić 21 14.000.000 € Inter

Marko Rog 21 13.500.000 € Napoli

Eduardo da Silva 24 13.500.000 € Arsenal

Vedran Ćorluka 21 13.000.000 € Manchester City Tottenham 13.750.000 €

Lovro Majer 23 12.000.000 € Stade Rennais Wolfsburg 25.000.000 €

Luka Vušković 18 11.000.000 € Tottenham

Mateo Kovačić 18 11.000.000 € Inter Real Madrid 38.000.000 €