2023–24 Croatian Football League

The 2023–24 Croatian Football League (officially SuperSport Hrvatska nogometna liga for sponsorship reasons) was the 33rd season of the Croatian top division football, the national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. The season began on 21 July 2023.^[1]

SuperSport Hrvatska nogometna liga

Season	2023–24
Dates	21 July 2023 – 25 May 2024
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb
Relegated	Rudeš
Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb
Europa League	Rijeka
Conference League	Hajduk Split Osijek
Matches played	180
Goals scored	479 (2.66 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ramón Miérez (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Rijeka 6–0 Istra 1961 (6 August 2023)
Biggest away win	Rudeš 1–5 Dinamo Zagreb (24 September 2023) Istra 1961 0–4 Lokomotiva (2 October 2023) Rudeš 0–4 Istra 1961 (11 November 2023)
Highest scoring	Istra 1961 4–4 Osijek (13 August 2023)
Longest winning run	9 matches Dinamo Zagreb
Longest unbeaten run	14 matches Dinamo Zagreb
Longest winless run	24 matches Rudeš
Longest losing run	6 matches Rudeš
Total attendance	956,128
Average attendance	5,371
← 2022–23 2024–25 →

Teams

The league consisted of ten teams; the top nine teams from the previous season, and one team promoted from the Prva NL. 2022–23 Prva NL champions Rudeš were promoted and returned after a four-year absence, replacing the 2022–23 Croatian Football League bottom-placed team, Šibenik (relegated after three seasons in the top flight).

Stadia and locations

Dinamo Zagreb	Gorica	Hajduk Split	Istra 1961
Stadion Maksimir	Gradski stadion Velika Gorica	Stadion Poljud	Stadion Aldo Drosina
Capacity: 24,851	Capacity: 5,200	Capacity: 33,987	Capacity: 9,800
Lokomotiva	Zagreb Gorica Hajduk Split Istra 1961 Osijek Rijeka Slaven Varaždin Zagreb clubs: Dinamo Lokomotiva Rudeš Locations of teams in 2023–24 HNL		Osijek
Stadion Kranjčevićeva			Opus Arena
Capacity: 5,350			Capacity: 13,005
Rijeka	Rudeš	Slaven Belupo	Varaždin
Stadion Rujevica	Stadion Kranjčevićeva	Stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš	Stadion Varteks
Capacity: 8,191	Capacity: 5,350	Capacity: 3,054	Capacity: 8,818

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Ref.
Dinamo Zagreb	Zagreb	Maksimir	24,851	[2]
Gorica	Velika Gorica	ŠRC Velika Gorica	5,200	[3]
Hajduk Split	Split	Poljud	33,987	[4]
Istra 1961	Pula	Stadion Aldo Drosina	9,800	[5]
Lokomotiva	Zagreb	Kranjčevićeva1	5,350	[6]
Osijek	Osijek	Opus Arena	13,005	[7]
Rijeka	Rijeka	Rujevica	8,191	[8]
Rudeš	Zagreb	Kranjčevićeva1	5,350	[6]
Slaven Belupo	Koprivnica	Stadion Ivan Kušek-Apaš	3,054	[9]
Varaždin	Varaždin	Stadion Varteks	8,818	[10]

• ¹ Lokomotiva and Rudeš host their home matches at Stadion Kranjčevićeva. The stadium is originally the home ground of fifth-level side NK Zagreb.

Rank	Counties of Croatia	Number of teams	Club(s)
1	City of Zagreb	3	Dinamo Zagreb, Lokomotiva, Rudeš
2	Istria	1	Istra 1961
	Koprivnica-Križevci		Slaven Belupo
	Osijek-Baranja		Osijek
	Primorje-Gorski Kotar		Rijeka
	Split-Dalmatia		Hajduk Split
	Varaždin		Varaždin
	Zagreb County		Gorica

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
Dinamo Zagreb	Sergej Jakirović	Arijan Ademi	Adidas	PSK
Gorica	Rajko Vidović	Filip Mrzljak	Alpas	Kömmerling
Hajduk Split	Jure Ivanković (caretaker)	Lovre Kalinić	Macron	Tommy
Istra 1961	Paolo Tramezzani	Slavko Blagojević	Joma	Germania
Lokomotiva	Silvijo Čabraja	Mateo Marić	Macron	Favbet
Osijek	Ivo Smoje (caretaker)	Vedran Jugović	2Rule	Mészáros és Mészáros Kft.
Rijeka	Željko Sopić	Nediljko Labrović	Joma	Favbet
Rudeš	Davor Mladina	Mateo Pavlović	Adidas	Sava Osiguranje
Slaven Belupo	Ivan Radeljić	Tomislav Božić	Jako	Belupo
Varaždin	Mario Kovačević	Igor Postonjski	Capelli Sport	BURAI

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Slaven Belupo	Zoran Zekić	Contract expired	27 May 2023	Ricardo Moniz	7 May 2023	Pre-season
Rudeš	Davor Mladina		5 June 2023	Robert Prosinečki	7 June 2023
Istra 1961	Gonzalo Garcia	Mutual consent	7 June 2023	Mislav Karoglan	11 June 2023
Istra 1961	Mislav Karoglan	Sacked	9 August 2023	David Català	13 August 2023	9th
Dinamo Zagreb	Igor Bišćan		21 August 2023	Sergej Jakirović	21 August 2023	7th
Rijeka	Sergej Jakirović	Signed by Dinamo Zagreb	21 August 2023	Darko Raić-Sudar (caretaker)	22 August 2023	3rd
Gorica	Željko Sopić	Signed by Rijeka	23 August 2023	Mensur Mujdža (caretaker)	23 August 2023	5th
Rijeka	Darko Raić-Sudar (caretaker)	End of caretaker tenure	25 August 2023	Željko Sopić	25 August 2023	3rd
Gorica	Mensur Mujdža (caretaker)	Signing of Jeličić	30 August 2023	Dinko Jeličić	30 August 2023	6th
Rudeš	Robert Prosinečki	Sacked	3 September 2023	Toni Golem	5 September 2023	10th
Slaven Belupo	Ricardo Moniz		4 September 2023	Roy Ferenčina		9th
Osijek	Stjepan Tomas		3 October 2023	Ivo Smoje (caretaker)	3 October 2023	6th
Osijek	Ivo Smoje (caretaker)	Signing of Zekić	13 October 2023	Zoran Zekić	13 October 2023	5th
Hajduk Split	Ivan Leko	Mutual consent	23 October 2023	Mislav Karoglan	23 October 2023	2nd
Rudeš	Toni Golem		12 November 2023	Ivan Mijač (caretaker)	17 November 2023	10th
Rudeš	Ivan Mijač (caretaker)	Signing of Mladina	6 December 2023	Davor Mladina	6 December 2023
Istra 1961	David Català	Sacked	7 February 2024	Paolo Tramezzani	8 February 2024	8th
Gorica	Dinko Jeličić		11 March 2024	Mensur Mujdža (caretaker)	11 March 2024	6th
Gorica	Mensur Mujdža (caretaker)	Signing of Vidović	18 March 2024	Rajko Vidović	18 March 2024	6th
Hajduk Split	Mislav Karoglan	Mutual consent	8 April 2024	Jure Ivanković (caretaker)	8 April 2024	3rd
Slaven Belupo	Roy Ferenčina	Sacked	9 April 2024	Ivan Radeljić	9 April 2024	9th
Osijek	Zoran Zekić		20 May 2024	Ivo Smoje (caretaker)	20 May 2024	4th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	36	25	7	4	67	30	+37	82	Qualification to Champions League play-off round
2	Rijeka	36	23	5	8	69	30	+39	74	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round[a]
3	Hajduk Split	36	21	5	10	54	26	+28	68	Qualification to Conference League second qualifying round
4	Osijek	36	16	9	11	62	43	+19	57
5	Lokomotiva	36	12	15	9	52	45	+7	51
6	Varaždin	36	10	12	14	39	47	−8	42
7	Gorica	36	11	8	17	35	50	−15	41
8	Istra 1961	36	10	11	15	36	54	−18	41
9	Slaven Belupo	36	9	6	21	43	69	−26	33
10	Rudeš (R)	36	1	6	29	22	85	−63	9	Relegation to First Football League

Source: SuperSport HNL
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored (at home if two teams tied); 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Play-off
(Note: Criteria 2-4 and 7 is only used if deciding champion, teams to international competition or teams for relegation and in that case criteria 6 will not be used).^[11]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The 2023–24 Croatian Football Cup winners qualified for the Europa League second qualifying round. Since the cup winners (Dinamo Zagreb) qualified for the Champions League, the Europa League spot was passed to the second-placed team, and the second Conference League second qualifying round spot was passed to the fourth-placed team.

Results

Each team plays home-and-away against every other team in the league twice, for a total of 36 matches each played.

Home \ Away	DIN	GOR	HAJ	IST	LOK	OSI	RIJ	RUD	SLA	VAR	DIN	GOR	HAJ	IST	LOK	OSI	RIJ	RUD	SLA	VAR
Dinamo Zagreb		0–0	1–2	3–0	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	3–0	2–1		2–0	0–0	4–1	0–3	1–0	1–0	3–3	5–2	1–0
Gorica	2–1		2–1	0–0	1–0	3–0	2–3	3–0	2–2	1–1	0–2		0–3	2–0	1–2	0–3	0–2	2–1	1–0	1–3
Hajduk Split	1–0	3–0		0–1	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	3–0	3–1	0–1	2–1		1–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	5–1	4–0	0–1
Istra 1961	0–3	0–1	0–2		0–4	4–4	1–1	0–0	2–0	2–0	0–1	0–0	1–1		0–0	1–0	0–2	2–1	3–0	2–0
Lokomotiva	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–1		2–2	1–1	1–0	1–3	3–3	0–1	1–1	2–5	3–0		1–1	3–1	3–0	2–1	0–0
Osijek	2–3	1–0	0–1	3–1	1–1		0–0	3–0	6–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–1	1–2	3–1		2–0	2–0	4–1	0–1
Rijeka	2–2	1–0	1–0	6–0	2–1	2–1		4–0	2–4	2–2	1–2	3–0	1–0	3–0	4–0	3–0		3–0	4–0	2–0
Rudeš	1–5	0–2	0–2	0–4	0–0	3–4	1–2		0–0	0–0	0–3	2–1	0–2	1–3	3–3	2–3	0–3		1–3	0–2
Slaven Belupo	0–2	0–0	0–1	2–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	3–2		3–2	2–3	4–1	0–1	1–1	2–3	0–1	0–1	4–0		0–1
Varaždin	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–0	2–2	0–2	2–0	2–2		0–1	2–4	1–1	2–2	0–2	0–2	3–1	1–0	1–2

Source: SuperSport HNL (in Croatian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top scorers

As of 26 May 2024^[12]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ramón Miérez	Osijek	18
2	Fran Brodić	Varaždin (7), Dinamo Zagreb (6)	13
3	Duje Čop	Lokomotiva	12
4	Niko Janković	Rijeka	11
	Bruno Petković	Dinamo Zagreb
6	Marko Livaja	Hajduk Split	10
	Benedik Mioč	Slaven Belupo
8	Marin Šotiček	Lokomotiva	8

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Bruno Petković	Dinamo Zagreb
Manager of the Season	Sergej Jakirović
Young Player of the Season	Martin Baturina

Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Nediljko Labrović (Rijeka)
Defence	Stefan Ristovski (Dinamo Zagreb)	Stjepan Radeljić (Rijeka)	Niko Galešić (Rijeka)	Bruno Goda (Rijeka)
Midfield	Toni Fruk (Rijeka)	Josip Mišić (Dinamo Zagreb)		Martin Baturina (Dinamo Zagreb)
Attack	Bruno Petković (Dinamo Zagreb)	Ramón Miérez (Osijek)		Marko Pjaca (Rijeka)

Attendances

#	Football club	Home games	Average attendance
1	Hajduk Split	18	18,873
2	Dinamo Zagreb	18	9,013
3	NK Osijek	18	7,418
4	HNK Rijeka	18	6,406
5	NK Varaždin	18	2,969
6	NK Istra 1961	18	2,603
7	HNK Gorica	18	1,830
8	Lokomotiva Zagreb	18	1,624
9	Slaven Belupo	18	1,280
10	NK Rudeš	18	1,143

Source: European Football Statistics