For some reason, the articles about Istria’s only top tier football club Istra 1961 on this site are read by far more people than the club has visitors at matches. On Sunday, August 14, 2016 some 500 people treated themselves to the latest episode of the American investors directed farce at the Aldo Drosina Stadium in Pula. The 0:0 against Slaven Belupo marked match number 30 without victory. Even the kids playing for the youth categories of the team aren’t coming to the matches anymore, while their coaches franticly call every child they’ve heard of standing near a ball to join their “selection” of young talent. The club doesn’t attract anybody anymore.
That the American investors have a hidden agenda in Pula and Istria has been clear since the beginning, but what is happening with the club now is a disgrace for the city, the region and for everyone involved in the project and shouldn’t be tolerated by the City of Pula, which still owns a share in the club.
The American investors have so far invested next to nothing. For the most part they have only made loans to the club, as the only opposition in regional media, regionalexpress.hr highlights in todays, August 15, 2016 article. If things continue the way they are now, the club will lose whatever is left of support in the community.
The example of another top tier Croatian football team, NK Osijek, shows how transparently and swiftly things can be done when investors invest cash instead of unrealistic promises. The first results can be seen only a few months after some serious investors took over the club.
