Croatian Football Federation
| UEFA | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Founded | 13 June 1912 |
| FIFA affiliation | 16 July 1941 (as Independent State of Croatia) 3 July 1992 (as Croatia) |
| UEFA affiliation | 16 June 1993 |
| President |
Davor Šuker (2012–present) |
| Website | www |
The Croatian Football Federation (Croatian: Hrvatski nogometni savez or HNS) is the governing body of association football in Croatia. It was originally formed in 1912 and is based in the capital city of Zagreb. The organisation is a member of both FIFA and UEFA, and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in Croatia. Its current president is Davor Šuker.
The HNS sanctions all competitive football matches in Croatia, either directly, beginning with the 3. HNL on down, or indirectly through the associations of professional football clubs, who manage 1. HNL and 2. HNL, the first and second divisions of Croatia, respectively, as well as the Croatian Cup. It is also responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's and youth national football teams. As of 2009, the HNS had 118,316 registered players (650 of them professionals) and a total of 1,732 registered association football and futsal clubs.
The organisation traces its roots to the Croatian Sports Federation (Hrvatski športski savez), which was founded on 8 October 1909 in Zagreb, at the time when Croatia was part of Austria–Hungary. The federation organised all sports in the country and its first president was Hinko Würth, the chairman of HAŠK football club. Present-day HNS considers its foundation date to be 13 June 1912, when the football section of the Croatian Sports Federation was established, and its head, Milovan Zoričić, as its first president.
After World War I and the dissolution of Austria–Hungary, representatives from Građanski, HAŠK, Hajduk Split and Concordia football clubs met in Zagreb on 14 April 1919 and founded the Football Association of Yugoslavia (Jugoslavenski nogometni savez), as a successor of the Croatian Sports Federation's football section, and appointed Hinko Würth as its president. The organization then became the chief governing body of football in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and launched the Yugoslav First League, the first country-wide national competition held initially in a cup format. Five other regional sub-federations were also created (based in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Split and Subotica), each organizing their own regional tournaments with winners qualifying for the national championship.
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