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Croatia: Football flags

Croatian Football Federation (Hrvatski nogometni savez - HNS)
Flags used by supporters of the national team
Football clubs
- NK Osijek

See also:

Croatia

Croatian Football Federation

Flag of HNS, horizontal and vertical versions - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 January 2018

The symbols of HNS are prescribed in Article 9 of the federation's Statutes (text), as follows.

1. The Federation has a flag and an emblem.
2. The flag of the Federation is white with the Federation's emblem in the center.
3. The emblem of the Federation is elongated with a flat shield with protruding longitudinal sides. The elements of the historical Croatian coat of arms, that is, horizontal and vertical divided red and white (golden) fields, are the basis of the emblem. By the center of the emblem, across the red and white (gold) fields is a blue field, which stretches from the narrow side of the shield up and on top of the shield down. At the bottom of the emblem, on the top of the shield there is a soccer ball of golden color, and in the same color are all the frames of the emblem.

The flag is used either horizontally (photo) or vertically (photo).

Flag of HNS, early 2000s - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 22 January 2018

In the early 2000s, the headquarters of HNS used a vertical, golden yellow flag charged with the Federation's emblem outlined in white.

Flags of HNS with the Federation's name - Images by Tomislav Šipek, 23 January 2018

After 2013, the flag was also used with the name of the Federation, in Croatian and English, added, at the bottom of the flag (photo), around the emblem (photo), or at its right (photo).

Flags of HNS with the "Be Proud" logo - Images by Tomislav Šipek, 23 January 2018

The logo with the motto "BUDI PONOSAN" ("Be Proud") is sometimes added to the flag (photo, photo).

Tomislav Šipek, 23 January 2018

Flags used by supporters of the national team

UEFA Euro 1996

Flag used in Euro 1996 - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 July 1998

In Euro 1996, held in England, the Croatian supporters used a checky flag with one square being itself checky.

Željko Heimer, 9 July 1998

FIFA World Cup 1998

Flag used in World Cup 1998 - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 July 1998

The town of Vittel, which hosted the Croatian national team, organized a magnificent reception when the players came back after their victory against Germany. The players were driven in a tourist's train around the town celebrating. On the train, and on some other places around, there was a remarkable flag, obviously used as a decoration rather then supposed to be a real national flag. The flag consisted in five stripes, the inner three being the Croatian national flag, while the outer two were made of checky fields.
This same flag was used soon afterwards, after Croatia had won the third place in the Cup; there were post stamps (small sheet of 4) showing the victorious team holding such flags. It was used again by supporters in several other sporting events.

Željko Heimer, 9 August 1999

UEFA Euro 2008

Flags attached to the car windows on a small staff were used for the first time in Croatia in 2008. They are, apparently, produced by several companies, since there are several designs to be seen. I guess that they were produced somewhere in the Far-East as the coat of arms in the flag is of rather poor quality and often misplaced and oversized. Basically two general designs were being used as car (window) flags, each with several variants:

1. National flag.
- in proportions 2:3, roughly 30 x 45 cm in size, with an oversized coat of arms, entering the blue stripe on 1.5 rows of "squares" in the shield;
- similar, but with some commercial message printed on the white heading on the staff;
- similar, but with some kind of commercial ad printed in the middle of the fly part of the blue stripe (a kind of red oblong rectangle with white letters);
- similar, but ca. 15 x 22 cm in size, apparently with a better looking coat of arms.
2. Supporter's flag (as it was being advertised in media).
- in proportions ca. 2:3, roughly 30 x 45 cm in size in a checky pattern (that is, the banner of arms), with several variations in the number of squares (4x6 squares, starting with a red square in canton, this square also including the logo of the newspapers Vecernji list; 6 x 10 squares, starting with a white square in canton);
- a somewhat different variant, white with a checky border of two rows of squares around the edges, some 10 x 20 squares, with blue "3D" effect letters reading "HRVATSKA" over the top checky border and "CROATIA" over the bottom;
- the same flag seems to have been printed with some aditional logos in the white central panel, including the logo of the national footbal association.
These car window flags were extremly popular and it seemed that almost every three or four car in Zagreb was being equipped with at least one (usually with two, even, less frequently, with four) of them, more on the days when Croatia was playing.

Larger flags for hoisting from houses were also being sold, 50 x 100 cm in size, again in two variants - the national flag and the supporter's flag. The national flag has a badly centered coat of arms, of poor drawing (the "crown" being partially in white and partially in red stripe, and again entering the blue stripe too much, centering the rectangle framing the coat of arms in the middle of the flag. The supporter's flag consists of 9 x 14 squares, starting with a white square in canton.

Željko Heimer, 15 June 2008

Respect flag - Image by António Martins-Tuvalkin & Željko Heimer, 2 July 2008

The "RESPECT" national flags distributed by UEFA to supporters have a vertical white stripe added along the hoist, charged with the emblem of the Championships and "RESPECT".

Ivan Sache, 28 June 2008