Is there a war between South and North in Croatian football? Not if you ask futsal clubs, even CFF accuses its members for dividing the football community. They seem to stand united after head officers in Futsal were sacked by CFF.
After changes have been made by CFF in the Futsal managing council, two of the biggest futsal clubs started with social media attacks on the Croatian Football Federation on February 25, 2016. Eyebrows were raised by the sacking of Mr. Ivo Zoković, even though he was voted to head the Futsal league unanimously by all the clubs involved. Insiders see this as an attempt from CFF to strength the power of people in charge at the moment, as Mr. Zoković has publicly announced his support for Hajduk Split enrolling all the club members to it.
It is not easy for many people involved in Croatian futsal to see the problem in this, as FC Split Tommy, and Hajduk share the main sponsor, and not less, come from the same city, and after these events, FC Nacional Zagreb has publicly declared its support for Zoković and harshly accused CFF for misconduct. It is to be mentioned that Split and Nacional are rivals in the league, and the most successful clubs in past years.
Nacional has decided to follow their words with action after CFF has issued a public release by its spokesman Tomislav Pacak, accusing Nacional for starting the clash between North and South. (!?) Nacional players and trainers have made a stop in Split on their way to Dubrovnik yesterday, and have enrolled in Hajduk Split collectively. It is expected they are to get a warm welcome tonight in Dubrovnik, where they are to face FC Square.
This game is part of Day 13 of the competition, and as nogometplus.net reports, Ivica Đolo, chairman of Nacional has declared that clubs will play this weekend’s games, as they don’t want to disappoint spectators with delaying scheduled games, but after this weekend they will stop all the competition, and will issue demands to CFF for National team manager Mato Stanković to step down, and the person responsible for public release mentioned as well. One more demand is to allow clubs to vote three persons to CFF’s national futsal council.
This announcement is yet to be officially confirmed by all the clubs concerned, and it will be the development to watch, as if clubs are to stand united, it will be a big deal for CFF management, as until this events, they ruled the game unopposed, unless we count Hajduk’s solo efforts.
