Dinamo Zagreb’s start to the season currently sees them in third place in the Croatian Premier League, 4 points off leaders Rijeka and rivals Hajduk Split in second with a game in hand over both. Despite the fact that Dinamo Zagreb could still go on to win the league from this position, it is clear that this is not going to be a usual routine season for Dinamo and that there is a good chance of either Rijeka or Hajduk winning the league this season. Dinamo’s dominance in Croatian Football has been well documented, winning all but one title since the start of the 2005-06 season. For comparison, in the same time period the Bundesliga Bayern Munich have won all but four titles within the same time period and even PSG have not won the league on three occasions since Qatari investment came into the club in June 2011. The difference in Dinamo’s start this season compared to other slow starts is that Dinamo’s dominance could be coming to an end. The dominance Dinamo have had, has been coupled with allegations of corruption, match fixing and clear preferential treatment from those within the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) and the governments of Croatia. However, since the death of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and the prison sentence given to Zdravko Mamić, who pulled the strings behind the scenes at Dinamo a new era dawns, one where they have not got the backing of the state or a crook in charge of footballing activities.
Since Croatia’s separation from Yugoslavia, Dinamo Zagreb has had a long history of those with immense power using the club as a tool for their own benefit, creating chaos within the club and the Croatian league in the process. Previously, the first President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, enforced a name change from Dinamo Zagreb to HAŠK Građanski (Croatian Academic Sports Club Citizens) in 1991 before settling on Croatia Zagreb in 1993. Tuđman achieved this through his political power, with at-the-time President of Dinamo, Zlatko Canjuga, also being the President of Tuđman’s ruling HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) Party in Zagreb. Tuđman enforced this move in order to give Dinamo a more nationalistic name, which could be recognised across the world. Dinamo fans resented the move, as they consider the name an important part of their history. In Communist Yugoslavia, all Football clubs were disbanded and many were reformed under different names, including Dinamo, who were originally named HŠK Građanski. Goran Kovac, who was the leader of the group that campaigned to change the name back stated, “For many years under communism it was not safe to sing a Croat national song, but you could sing Dinamo songs. When you sang a Dinamo song, everyone knew what you meant.”
Tuđman’s influence meant that favouritism for Dinamo was not something that was limited to the boardroom within Maksimir. If the President of Croatia pulling the strings in the boardroom was not enough to convince someone that Dinamo benefitted from the state, then it should be noted that Dinamo were also favoured dearly by those within the Croatian Football Federation (HNS). In the most extreme example this can be seen through the final day of the 1998-99 season. With one game to go, Rijeka, a city ruled by the Social Democrats 2 , the opponents of the HDZ, needed to beat Osijek in order to win the league for the first ever time. Dinamo started the day second, a point behind Rijeka. Dinamo comfortably beat Varteks (now Varaždin) 2-0 in Zagreb, doing what they needed to do in order to win the league. However, in Rijeka immense controversy unfolded. Going into the final minutes of the game at 1-1 Rijeka needed a goal in order to win the league title. In the 89th minute Barnabas Stipanovics crossed into the path of Admir Hasancic who put the ball into the back of the net. The goal was then subsequently ruled out for offside, a decision which has been since adjudged to be incorrect through the use of technology. 3 The controversy surrounding the decision huge, it was alleged by Croatian News Magazine “Nacional” in the week following the game that the game was rigged and that referee Reno Sinovcic was blackmailed by the SZUP (Croatian Intelligence Service) with a criminal record, suspected of Racketeering and Extortion. 4 The Interior Ministry also confirmed that the documents Nacional used were genuine. In response to the controversy, the President of the Croatian Football Federation at the time, Vlatko Markovic, stated that the win for Dinamo was fine as they were the “Most Catholic” club in the country. 5 The position of Catholicism within Croatian nationalism essentially means that this quote is the head of the Croatian Football Federation saying that a controversial win for Dinamo Zagreb is fine as they are his favourite club. In late 1999, Tuđman passed away after a long battle with cancer. Following Tuđman’s death, the name was changed back to Dinamo Zagreb and they also happened to go on a run of winning the league only once in seasons spanning from 2000-01 until 2004-05, finishing as low as seventh in the 2004-05 season.
However, the death of Tuđman did not mean the end of corrupt influence in the boardroom of the Maksimir Stadium. From the early 2000’s the club was bankrolled by the Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić and was effectively run in the boardroom by Zdravko Mamić, being presided over by the elected Mirko Barišić.
Bandić used public money in order to bankroll Dinamo, easing their ways to league titles. The official figures provided by the City Office for Sports and Youth of the City of Zagreb stated that from the period of 2006 to 2017, around 300 million Croatian Kuna was used in order to fund Dinamo. 6 This amount is equivalent to just under 35 million pounds. In turn, Zdravko Mamić used his power and influence within Croatian Football to turn this financial domination over the rest of the league in order to create financial benefit for himself. In 2009, former Arsenal striker Eduardo sued Mamić over a clause in a contract that he had signed whilst at Dinamo, which declared that 50% of all future earnings must be given to Mamić. In 2014, Eduardo won the case and the contract was considered void.