Croatian Football League

The Hrvatska nogometna liga, abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Established in 1992, it was previously called Prva Hrvatska nogometna liga, but a league structure reorganization from 2022–23 led to name changes for the three top league levels.

Overview

The league was formed in 1991, following the independence of Croatia and the creation of a separate Croatian league from the Yugoslav First League. This newly formed league was operated by the Croatian Football Federation. Since its formation, the league went through many changes in its system and number of participating clubs. In the first three seasons two points were awarded for a win, from 1994–95 season this was changed to three points. Each season starts in late July or early August and ends in May, with a two-month hiatus between December and February. Currently, there are ten teams participating in the league.
The first season started in February 1992 and ended in June 1992. A total of twelve clubs contested the league and at the end of the season no teams were relegated as it was decided that the league would expand to 16 clubs for the following season. This was followed by another expansion to 18 teams in 1993–94 season, highest number of participating teams in Prva HNL history. The following season, number of teams was reduced again to 16. 1995–96 Prva HNL was the first season to feature separate A- and B- leagues, with a complicated two-stage format to the season. Twelve teams contested the A league, while the B league, formally the second level, consisted of ten teams. In March, the teams were split into three groups: Championship group, A play-off group and B play-off group. The first two teams of the B play-off group were placed in the A league for the following season, which featured 16 teams in both A and B league. In the 1997–98 Prva HNL, the league consisted of 12 team and a new format was used. In March, teams were split into two groups of six, Championship and Relegation group, with 50% of their points taken to this phase of the competition. At the end of the season, the last team was directly relegated to the Druga HNL and the second-last team went in the relegation play-off, a two-legged tie against the second-placed team from the Druga HNL. This system was used for two seasons, followed by 1999–2000 Prva HNL where each club playing every other club three times for a total of 33 rounds. Next season featured a return of Championship and Relegation group system but without 50% points cutoff. This system was used until 2005–06 season, with a brief expansion to 16 teams in 2001–02 season. [2006–07 Prva HNL|The 2006–07 season] brought back a 33 rounds system previously used in 1999–2000 Prva HNL. In the 2009–10 season, the league was expanded to 16 teams. This lasted for three seasons, and in the 2012–13 Prva HNL season, the league was contested by 12 teams playing a total of 33 rounds. From the 2013–14 Prva HNL season, number of teams was reduced to ten.
The league's main sponsor is T-Hrvatski Telekom, owned by the German telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom. At the end of the 2014–15 season, the Croatian First League was ranked 17th in Europe. The champions of the 2015–16 Croatian First Football League will qualify for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, the runners-up will qualify for the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League, while the third-placed team will qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League. The winners of the 2015–16 Croatian Football Cup will qualify for the third qualifying round of UEFA Europa League.

Clubs

The following ten clubs compete in the 2025-26 Croatian Football League season, the 36th season since the league's establishment.
Four of the ten clubs currently competing in the Croatian top level also had spells in the Yugoslav First League played from 1945 to 1991 before Croatian clubs abandoned the competition. Four other Croatian clubs which had appeared in the top Yugoslav league are currently playing in Croatian lower levels.
As of 2025, only four of the 12 founding members of the Croatian league have never been relegated: Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, Osijek and Rijeka.

Club	Position in 2024–25	First season in top division	Number of seasons in top division	Number of seasons in 1. HNL	First season of current spell in top division	Best top level result	Titles total
Dinamo Zagreb ‡	0022nd	1946–47	80	35	1946–47	1st	29 ^nb1
Gorica	0099th	2018–19	8	8	2018–19	5th
Hajduk Split ‡	0033rd	1923	97	35	1923	1st	15 ^nb2
Istra 1961	0066th	2004–05	20	20	2009–10	5th
Lokomotiva	0088th	1946–47	26	17	2009–10	2nd
Osijek ‡	0077th	1953–54	51	35	1981–82	2nd
Rijeka ‡	0011st	1946–47	64	35	1974–75	1st	2
Slaven Belupo	0055th	1997–98	30	30	1997–98	2nd
Varaždin (2012)\|Varaždin]	0044th	2019–20	6	6	2019–20	4th
Vukovar 1991	ZZZ1st in 1. NL	2025–26	0	0	2025–26	TBA

† – One of the 12 founding members of the league in the inaugural 1992 season.
‡ – Appeared in all 33 seasons up to and including the current 2025–26 season.
nb1 – Dinamo Zagreb tally includes four Yugoslav and 25 Croatian league titles.
nb2 – Hajduk Split tally includes nine Yugoslav and six Croatian league titles.

Prva HNL teams in European competitions

The breakup of Yugoslavia saw top flight league split into several smaller ones. This meant separation of Croatian football association from the Football Association of Yugoslavia and launch of their own football league. Prva HNL saw its first edition in 1992. Hajduk Split and HAŠK Građanski took part in European competitions on account of qualification secured at the end of the 1990–91 Yugoslav football season: HAŠK Građanski were runners-up in the 1990–91 Yugoslav First League and qualified for 1991–92 UEFA Cup while Hajduk Split won the 1990–91 Yugoslav Cup and entered 1991–92 European Cup Winners' Cup. Due to war both clubs had to host their European matches abroad, in Austria.
Affected by the ongoing war in Croatia, the first Prva HNL season was held over the course of a single calendar year, from February to June 1992. Neither Hajduk Split nor Inker Zaprešić could enter European competitions the following 1992–93 season as the Croatian Football Federation, the league's governing body, wasn't yet recognized by UEFA and officially became its affiliate as late as June 1993.
Eight times in history have HNL teams entered the group stages of UEFA Champions League. In the 1994–95 season, Hajduk Split eliminated Legia Warsaw in the qualifying round and entered the group stage. They advanced to quarterfinals as group runners-up behind Benfica but were eliminated by eventual winners Ajax. In the 1998–99 season, Croatia Zagreb qualified over Celtic and finished in second place behind Olympiacos, but failed to advance as only first place teams and two best runners-up went through. The following season, Croatia also entered the group stage after eliminating MTK Budapest in the third qualifying round. Drawn in the group with Manchester United, Olympique Marseille and Sturm Graz, they finished last, winning only against Sturm and drawing away at Manchester and Marseille. In the 2011–12 season, Dinamo Zagreb advanced through three qualifying rounds and were drawn in the group with Real Madrid, Lyon and Ajax. The following season, Dinamo Zagreb also advanced to the group stages and was drawn in the group with Dynamo Kyiv, Paris Saint-Germain and Porto. They lost five group matches, drawing with Dynamo Kyiv in the last round. In the 2015-16 season, Dinamo Zagreb entered the group stage and recorded notable win 2–1 over Arsenal. Next season, 2016-17, another qualification followed. Latest entry to the group stage was in 2019-20 where Dinamo Zagreb finished fourth behind Manchester City, Atalanta and Shakhtar Donetsk|Shakhtar] with 2 draws vs Shakhtar and a 4–0 win over Atalanta, with controversial refereeing decisions in both draws — a win in either would have sent them through to the Round of 16 as runners-up.

Former names

Since 2003, the league has been named after its main sponsor, giving it the following names :

2003–2007 – Prva HNL Ožujsko
2007–2011 – T-Com Prva HNL
2011–2017 – MAXtv Prva liga
2017–2022 – Hrvatski Telekom Prva liga / HT Prva liga
2022–present – SuperSport Hrvatska nogometna liga / SuperSport HNL

UEFA rankings

Europe's top football body, the UEFA, ranks national leagues every year according to coefficients calculated based on each nation's clubs results in international competitions. The ranking takes into account results over the previous five seasons to determine the nation's European quota for the following season, i.e. how many berths in European competitions is assigned to clubs from each of UEFA's 55 member associations.
UEFA also maintains a separate club ranking, based on each club's international results, used to determine seeds in draws for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. This is calculated through a combination of each club's results as well as the ranking of its national league. As of 2025 Dinamo Zagreb is the top rated Croatian club, ranked 39th in Europe.

Country

As of 5 November 2023

Rank

Competition

Points

Club

As of 8 February 2025

2025 rank	2021 rank	Team	2025 club pts	2025 nation pts
39	33	Dinamo Zagreb	56.000	5.405
124	113	Rijeka	12.000	5.405
156	137	Hajduk Split	10.000	5.405
156	160	Osijek	9.000	5.405
265	225	Lokomotiva	2.000	5.405

''Source: ; last updated 29 May 2022''

Media coverage

In past, only one match in each round was broadcast on television. In the 2008–09 season there were some changes. Croatian national TV Network started the new TV show Volim Nogomet, made in association with league's main sponsor T-Com. In the show, five matches were broadcast combined on Sunday afternoons, while the derby match was on program at 20:15 CET, so viewers could watch all the matches. There were also experts in the studio, commenting on matches and other things non-related to football. Main initiator of the project was famous Croatian football player and then president of T-Com 1. HNL organisation Igor Štimac. Most of the clubs weren't satisfied with the scheduling of fixtures and demanded a move from Sunday afternoon to Saturday evening. This was done at the start of the following season and the only match played on Sunday was the derby match. However, during the mid-season project was cancelled and the old system with one broadcast per round was returned.
In November 2010, broadcasting rights were sold to marketing agency Digitel Komunikacije for a period of five years, beginning with 2011–12 season. After the negotiations fell through with public broadcasting television HRT, which covered Prva HNL for the past twenty seasons, Digitel signed a deal with Hrvatski Telekom. The matches were broadcast on Arenasport, a cable television network with five channels, available to subscribers of MAXtv, IPTV solution from T-HT subsidiary T-Com. All matches were broadcast live every week on Arenasport. All highlights are displayed on Sunday evening on RTL 2 and HRT 2.
From 2022–23 season the matches are broadcasting on the Hrvatski Telekom channels MAX Sport, while the one match per round broadcasting on the Croatian Radiotelevision, again after 11 years. For the other Ex-Yugoslav republics the league still broadcasting on Arena Sport. From January 2025, Hajduk Split's matches are broadcasting on the club's cable channel Hajduk Digital TV.

Champions

;Key

†	League champions also won the Croatian Football Cup, they completed the domestic Double
+	Player received award in front of Mijo Caktaš and Mirko Marić based on least playing minutes

Notes on name changes:

Dinamo Zagreb changed their name to "HAŠK Građanski" in June 1991 and then again in February 1993 to "Croatia Zagreb". They won five league titles and participated in the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League group stages carrying that name before reverting to "Dinamo Zagreb" mid-season in February 2000.
Koprivnica-based Slaven Belupo were formerly known as "Slaven" until 1992. They were then known as "Slaven Bilokalnik" from 1992 to 1994 before adopting their current name in 1994 for sponsorship reasons, after a pharmaceutical company based in Koprivnica. Since UEFA does not recognize sponsored club names, the club is listed as "Slaven Koprivnica" in European competitions and on UEFA's official website.

Performance by club

Club	Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Last best place
Dinamo Zagreb	25	5	2	Champions 2023–24
Hajduk Split	6	14	8	Champions 2004–05
Rijeka	2	8	5	Champions 2024–25
NK Zagreb	1	2	3	Champions 2001–02
Lokomotiva		2		Runner-up 2019–20
Osijek		1	9	Runner-up 2020–21
Slaven Belupo		1	1	Runner-up 2007–08
Inter Zaprešić		1		Runner-up 2004–05
Varteks			3	Third place 2005–06
Cibalia			1	Third place 2009–10
Hrvatski Dragovoljac			1	Third place 1996–97
RNK Split			1	Third place 2010–11

All-time HNL table

																	Win%
1	GNK Dinamo Zagreb	32	2375	1047	727	194	126	2550	890	24	4	2	30	1992	1992	1	69,43%
2	HNK Hajduk Split	32	1968	1047	577	240	230	2053	1096	6	14	6	26	1992	1992	1	55,10%
3	HNK Rijeka	32	1700	1051	476	272	303	1723	1328	2	7	5	13	1992	1992	1	45,29%
4	NK Osijek	32	1535	1047	421	272	354	1602	1482	0	1	9	10	1992	1992	2	40,21%
5	NK Slaven Belupo	26	1100	869	281	253	335	1120	1270	0	1	1	2	1997–98	1997–98	2	32,33%
6	NK Zagreb	24	1043	759	286	185	288	1163	1160	1	2	3	6	1992	2015–16	1	37,68%
7	NK Varaždin (1931–2015)	21	870	654	243	142	269	1047	1076	0	0	3	3	1992	2011–12	3	37,15%
8	HNK Cibalia	22	818	699	210	188	301	848	1101	0	0	1	1	1992	2017–18	3	30,04%
9	HNK Šibenik	21	766	670	199	169	302	796	1035	0	0	0	0	1992	2020–21	4	29,70%
10	NK Inter Zaprešić	20	739	647	193	160	294	783	1045	0	1	0	1	1992	2019–20	2	29,82%
11	NK Lokomotiva	14	657	483	180	117	186	643	653	0	2	0	2	2009–10	2009–10	2	37,26%
12	NK Zadar	20	649	597	169	142	286	741	1159	0	0	0	0	1992	2014–15	6	28,30%
13	NK Istra 1961	17	586	580	141	172	276	603	875	0	0	0	0	2004–05	2009–10	5	24,31%
14	NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac	10	360	319	90	80	149	355	494	0	0	1	1	1995–96	2021–22	3	28,21%
15	RNK Split	7	312	237	81	69	87	253	262	0	0	1	1	2010–11	2016–17	3	34,17%
16	HNK Gorica	5	248	180	65	49	66	204	191	0	0	0	0	2018–19	2018–19	5	36,11%
17	NK Istra	7	243	215	65	48	102	215	312	0	0	0	0	1992	1999–2000	6	30,02%
18	NK Kamen Ingrad	6	217	191	59	40	92	314	386	0	0	0	0	2001–02	2006–07	4	30,89%
19	HNK Segesta	5	207	160	55	42	63	197	206	0	0	0	0	1992–93	1996–97	8	34,37%
20	NK Marsonia	6	202	190	53	43	94	269	416	0	0	0	0	1994–95	2003–04	5	27,89%
21	NK Međimurje	5	150	160	40	30	90	227	390	0	0	0	0	2004–05	2009–10	9	25,00%
22	HNK Suhopolje	4	128	108	34	26	48	119	149	0	0	0	0	1995–96	1998–99	9	31,48%
23	NK Karlovac	3	112	90	29	26	35	82	103	0	0	0	0	2009–10	2011–12	6	32,22%
24	NK Varaždin (2012)	3	110	108	27	29	52	100	131	0	0	0	0	2019–20	2020–21	8	25,00%
25	NK Belišće	3	93	94	24	21	49	115	170	0	0	0	0	1992–93	1994–95	12	25,53%
26	HNK Dubrovnik 1919	3	77	86	18	23	45	54	133	0	0	0	0	1992	1993–94	11	20,93%
27	NK Pomorac Kostrena	2	72	62	19	15	28	78	93	0	0	0	0	2001–02	2002–03	7	30,64%
28	NK Čakovec	2	71	62	19	14	29	78	109	0	0	0	0	2000–01	2001–02	7	30,64%
29	NK Pazinka	2	65	64	15	20	29	71	95	0	0	0	0	1992–93	1993–94	11	23,43%
30	NK Primorac 1929	2	60	64	18	17	29	69	103	0	0	0	0	1993–94	1994–95	14	28,12%
31	NK Rudeš	2	54	72	13	15	44	67	142	0	0	0	0	2017–18	2018–19	8	18,00%
32	NK Croatia Sesvete	2	39	63	9	13	41	61	147	0	0	0	0	2008–09	2009–10	12	14,28%
33	NK Radnik Velika Gorica	2	33	64	12	9	43	47	161	0	0	0	0	1992–93	1993–94	13	18,75%
34	NK Samobor	1	32	32	9	5	18	34	55	0	0	0	0	1997–98	1997–98	12	28,12%
35	NK Lučko	1	31	30	6	13	11	29	36	0	0	0	0	2011–12	2011–12	13	20,00%
36	HNK Vukovar '91	1	30	33	7	9	17	32	56	0	0	0	0	1999–2000	1999–2000	12	21,21%
37	NK Dubrava	1	30	34	7	9	18	28	63	0	0	0	0	1993–94	1993–94	17	20,58%
38	HNK Orijent 1919	1	26	30	5	11	14	28	53	0	0	0	0	1996–97	1996–97	14	16,67%
39	NK Neretva	1	23	30	4	11	15	20	44	0	0	0	0	1996–97	1994–95	15	13,33%
40	NK TŠK Topolovac	1	14	30	4	2	24	31	95	0	0	0	0	2001–02	2001–02	16	13,33%

	2022–23 HNL
	2022–23 Prva NL
	2022–23 Druga NL
	Lower leagues
	No longer exists

Top scorers

Players in the Prva HNL compete for the Prva HNL Top scorer trophy, awarded to the top scorer at the end of each season. Former Dinamo Zagreb striker Igor Cvitanović held the record for most Prva HNL goals with 126 until April 2012. Cvitanović finished among the top ten goal scorers in 7 out of his 11 seasons in the Prva HNL and won the top scorer title two times. During the 1997–98 season, he became the first player to score 100 Prva HNL goals. On 14 April 2012, Davor Vugrinec scored his 127th goal and surpassed Cvitanović's record. Vugrinec retired in May 2015 with 146 goals on his tally. Only three other players have reached the 100-goal mark, Ivan Krstanović, Joško Popović and Miljenko Mumlek.
Since the first Prva HNL season in 1992, 26 different players have won the top scorers title. Goran Vlaović, Robert Špehar, Igor Cvitanović, Tomislav Šokota and Ivica Olić have won two titles each. Dinamo Zagreb provided most top scorers in Prva HNL with 13. Eduardo holds the record for most goals in a season with 34, done with Dinamo Zagreb in the 2006–07 season. Six goals is the record individual scoring total for a player in a single Prva HNL match, held by Marijo Dodik.
Dinamo Zagreb became the first team to have scored 1,000 goals in the league after Etto scored in a 4–0 victory over NK Zagreb in the 2005–06 season. The highest-scoring match to date in the Prva HNL occurred on 12 December 1993 when Dinamo Zagreb defeated minnows NK Pazinka 10–1.

Awards

There are three awards for best players in the Croatian First League:

Sportske novosti [Yellow Shirt award], for the HNL footballer of the year, given by the Croatian sport newspaper Sportske novosti, chosen by sport journalists.
Prva HNL [Player of the Year (Tportal)], given by the Croatian website Tportal, chosen by captains of league clubs.
Football Oscar, given by the Croatian union Football syndicate, chosen by players and managers of league clubs.