Croatia

Named after the neighbourhood that it was built in, Stadion Maksimir opened its doors for the first time back in 1912. It has undergone numerous changes over the years, not least from an event that occurred in 1941. Members of the fascist government of Croatia addressed students in the stadium and ordered them to be segregated depending on whether they were Serbian or Jewish. The youths disobeyed that instruction and in June of that year attempted to burn the stadium to the ground. The way it currently looks is based on the renovations that were done to the ground in the 1990s. Though it is normally the home of Dinamo Zagreb, Croatia’s most successful football team, the national side of Croatia also play some games there. They tend to split their time between Maksimir and Poljud Stadium, with the latter able to host roughly three thousand less people than the former. Of course, the Croatia national team as we know it today was only formed in 1990, so it hasn’t had a whole heap of choices regarding where to play. We’ll give you some more information on the formation of the modern day Croatia side further on on this page.