It is a fairly well-known fact that the oldest football club in Croatia is Hajduk Split, which was formed over a beer in a tavern in Prague in 1911.
But did you know that just two years later, the island of Hvar had two football clubs, which were called Balkan and Nois?
It was the start of a rich footballing tradition on Hvar, which maintains its own league, the Forska Liga, each year, with no less than ten teams competing in the championship. When you consider that the island only has 10,500 permanent inhabitants, that is quite an achievement. And there are no prizes for guessing the fixture which involves the most travel – Sucuraj away.
The league even inspired a full-length documentary, as Maja Zrnic followed the 2011 championship winning season of NK Levanda from Velo Grablje, a village with a population of just five at the time.
Foreigners are noticing, and any Hvar footballers who would like a game in June, we received the following email from Durham University:
My name is Josh and I am the captain of the Grey College, Durham University football team. We are going to be on tour in Hvar between the 12th and 16th of June and we are looking to play a local Hvar side in a game. We play to a very high-standard, we are our local league champions and some of our players play at semi-professional level. We would be delighted to have a game against a team. Do you think this is something a local club would be interested in?
Anyone interested, email [email protected] and I will put you in contact.
