113 years of the Croatian Football Federation

It all began on June 13, 1912, when Dr. Milovan Zoričić was elected as the head of the football section of the Croatian Sports Federation, marking the official beginning of the rich history of the Croatian Football Federation.

His deputy was Zvonimir Klobučar, and Ivan Pipinić served as treasurer. Along with Hinko Würth, Dragutin Albrecht, and Branko Gavella, they took on the responsibility of developing and advancing football in Croatia and are therefore rightly considered the first members of the national football organization.

The game of football in its modern form was first played in Croatia in 1873 by English workers who came to Rijeka to build a factory. By 1880, local Croatian youth began playing football in Županja. The first edition of the Laws of the Game in Croatian was published in Zagreb in 1896.

At the beginning of the 20th century, as the first football clubs began to emerge in Croatia, there was growing interest in forming a national football federation. This desire was further fueled after the first public football match was held on October 28, 1906, at Marulić Square in Zagreb—on the site of today’s University Library—between HAŠK and PNIŠK, ending in a 1:1 draw.

Croatia’s national team played its first public international matches in Prague on June 23 and 26, 1907, against Slavia Prague, then one of the top teams in both Czech and European football.

After World War I, the activities of the Croatian Football Federation had to adapt to the political circumstances of the time. The establishment of a sovereign, independent, and democratic Croatia following the 1990 elections marked the beginning of an incredibly successful era.

Since then, the Croatian national team has qualified for 13 out of 15 major tournaments, missing only Euro 2000 and the 2010 World Cup. The crowning achievement for many years was the bronze medal at the 1998 World Cup in France, when the "Vatreni" (Blazers) stunned the world in their debut on the global stage.

However, this bronze was surpassed by Zlatko Dalić’s team in 2018, which reached the very final of the World Cup in Russia—the pinnacle of world football. After victories over Nigeria, Argentina, Iceland, Denmark, Russia, and England—including truly dramatic moments—the loss to champions France did not diminish the golden glow of the silver medal. The homecoming of the world runners-up in Zagreb remains one of the most iconic days in the history of independent Croatia, when half a million people filled the streets in a rare atmosphere of national unity.

Team captain Luka Modrić was named the best player of the tournament, and went on to collect all the major individual awards, including UEFA and FIFA Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or.

But it didn’t stop there. Four years later, Croatia again reached the podium, winning bronze at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The success continued into the third edition of the Nations League, where Croatia earned a silver medal in Rotterdam—a testament to a promising future.

And indeed, the tradition of qualifying for major tournaments lives on—and is expected to continue. This is further reinforced by recent results at the start of the qualifying campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

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