AFTER the Zagreb earthquake and an inspection by a structural engineer, the Maksimir stadium was deemed "temporarily unusable" and is awaiting the final decision following a detailed building inspection. Club management told us they had been promised that a detailed inspection would be carried out soon and that the communication regarding the stadium was completely taken over by the City of Zagreb, which owns the facility.

We asked the City about the situation and will report their answer as soon as we receive it, although the same questions have been left without a clear answer for years.

According to an unofficial estimate, around HRK 1 billion was wasted on this concrete embarrassment where elite matches are played although it lacks some essential requirements such as sanitary facilities and decent entrances. For years, the critical problem has been the statics of the east stand, which is in jeopardy of collapsing, while concrete parts have been falling off the main load-bearing structure. The UEFA has already banned Dinamo from using the upper part of the west stand, and now the east stand has been given a yellow sticker following the earthquake, meaning it is currently not usable.

The "elite" stand has been falling apart for ten years

After the earthquake, Index's camera recorded the damage to the Maksimir stadium. Most of the damage occurred before it, but the earthquake worsened and lowered the safety level of one of the biggest monuments to Croatian corruption. It has already been a decade since a piece of concrete fell from the west stand on a club employee's car, and recently a glass pane fell from the same stand, which the club calls "elite", and for which it charges the most. The glass shattered in a place where the players, coaches, employees, and children who visit the stadium pass daily. At the time, we also witnessed the installation of a wire mesh under the stand in order to prevent the concrete from falling on passers-by.

"Dinamo financed the installation of a protective wire mesh under the west stand on its own initiative. With this investment, we prevented similar events from happening in the future in order to protect the lives of our employees, fans, and others who use the Maksimir stadium, and also to protect their property," a spokesperson from Maksimir stated last year.

Although Dinamo does not hide that their stadium is hazardous, it had no problems receiving a license for UEFA and Croatian football league competitions.

We expect the Croatian football championship to resume in two weeks, but Dinamo is still waiting for a detailed inspection to determine whether the east stand is safe for spectators. The club is not optimistic and is aware that the statics was damaged long before the earthquake. The east stand also serves as the roof over the stadium of the auxiliary pitch Hitrec-Kacian, where training and matches are held regularly. At your own risk, obviously.

The consequences could be grave

Assistant Professor Mislav Stepinac was a part of the team from the Faculty of Civil Engineering (University of Zagreb) which performed a quick inspection of the stadium after the earthquake and recorded some serious damage: namely cracks in the crossbeams connecting the main load-bearing structure of the stand, and the displacement of the staircase structure from the main framework. The short cantilevers, constituting the main support for the metal stairs that lead to the stands, were also damaged.

"This is a serious task, and the consequences could be grave in the event of a wrong assessment of the situation," Stepinac stated after the inspection.

A construction inspection is due.

"We have a firm promise from the competent city offices that a detailed expert examination will follow in the upcoming days, after which we will know what the situation is. GNK Dinamo insists on an expert report from which we will see which parts of the Maksimir stadium are usable. The east stand is definitely the most urgent when it comes to this report, and we can only make specific and responsible decisions after we have received the said document. Rest assured that the club will not allow the use of the stand without an expert report allowing it. It is no surprise that the east stand is problematic, it received poor grades in earlier assessments," said Dinamo board member Krešimir Antolić. 

Dinamo can go to Rijeka, Osijek, Maribor, Budapest...

If the inspection leads to the closing of the east stand, Dinamo will be able to finish the Croatian Football League season without it, but it won't be able to do so when it comes to the Champions League, which is why the club is already looking for replacement solutions. In Croatia, they have three options: Rujevica, Poljud, and Gradski vrt. In practice, however, there are only two options since Dinamo as the home team of Poljud could cause security problems.

That is why Maksimir management is also searching for a stadium abroad, which might be provided by the NK Maribor, and another interesting option could be Budapest.

A detailed inspection of Maksimir could result in the relocation of the national team from the "national stadium" to Split's Poljud. Other Croatian cities are also ready for the national team, with Rijeka and Osijek already having been tried and tested during the qualifications for major competitions.