Maksimir Stadium
Riot & Surge
Before the scheduled Dinamo Zagreb v Red Star Belgrade Yugoslav league match, serious disorder broke out involving Dinamo supporters, Red Star supporters, and police. The match was not played, and sources agree the violence began in the stands before spreading onto the pitch and beyond the stadium.
Core Facts
What Happened
The source set supports a serious football crowd disorder incident at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb on 13 May 1990. It is also commonly described as the Dinamo Zagreb-Red Star Belgrade riot, the Dinamo-Crvena zvezda riot, and the never-played match.
Source Summary
Core Findings
Contemporary and later sources agree that violence broke out before the scheduled Dinamo Zagreb v Red Star Belgrade match. The disorder involved Dinamo supporters, Red Star supporters and police.
The match was abandoned before it could be played. Sources describe disorder beginning in the stands, spreading onto the pitch, and continuing beyond the stadium area.
The injury total is not settled. UPI and some later sources report 138 injured, while other academic and retrospective sources give around 60 or over 60 wounded.
The incident also carries a disputed symbolic meaning. Some commemorative framing treats it as a symbolic starting point for the Croatian Homeland War, while other sources warn against treating that as a literal claim.
Quick View
Incident Highlights
Chronology
Known Sequence
Pre-match build-up
Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade were due to play a Yugoslav league fixture at Maksimir Stadium.
Disorder begins in the stands
Source accounts describe clashes involving Dinamo supporters, Red Star supporters and police before the match could start.
Violence spreads onto the pitch
Contemporary and retrospective accounts agree that the violence moved from the stands onto the field.
Match not played
The scheduled fixture was abandoned and later recorded as a default result for the visitors according to GNK Dinamo's commemoration.
Injury figures disputed
UPI reported 138 injured, while other sources report 60 or over 60. Later reports also include a 79 police and 59 spectator breakdown.
Operational Picture
Evidence Strength
Multiple sources identify Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb as the location.
The incident date of 13 May 1990 is consistent across the reviewed source trail.
Sources agree that serious disorder occurred before the match and that the fixture was not played.
The exact injury total is disputed and should not be stated as a single settled number.
The incident itself is well evidenced. The exact injury total and the later political meaning attached to the event are the shaky parts. Do not tidy those up — that would be pretending the source record is cleaner than it is.
Conflicting Information
What Does Not Line Up
Disputed Detail
Number of injured
The reviewed sources do not give one clean injury total. UPI and some later reports use 138, while other sources use 60 or over 60.
Editorial note: use a disputed range or explain the competing figures. Do not present 138 or 60 as settled without qualification.
Disputed Detail
Whether the incident “started the war”
Sources agree the incident became symbolically important. They do not all agree with the simplified claim that the war started at Maksimir.
Editorial note: this is a conflict of interpretation and memory, not a conflict over whether serious disorder happened.
Unverified Details
A single source-supported exact total is not verified.
No verified fatalities were found; sources instead state nobody was killed or that it was lucky nobody died.
The 15 May 1990 UPI follow-up could not be fully opened directly; the source file used retrievable preview text.
No fully opened social post with full page text was verified beyond preview level.
References
Source Cards
These cards summarise the sources listed in the document. Where the source file noted access limits, that limitation is kept in the card rather than swept under the rug.
UPI · News article
Yugoslavia's soccer riot leaves 138 injured
14 May 1990
Contemporary report stating that the Zagreb Maksimir stadium riot left 138 injured. It says clashes began in the stands before the match and spread onto the field, with 420 riot police deployed.
Visit Source →UPI · News article
State government inquiry into soccer riot
15 May 1990
Contemporary follow-up reporting that the Croatian government sought more information from police after the disorder. Search-preview text states clashes occurred in Zagreb streets and at Maksimir stadium, and witnesses said it was fortunate nobody was killed.
Visit Source →Euronews · News feature
Red Star Belgrade vs Dinamo Zagreb: The football match that 'started a war'
13 May 2020
Retrospective feature on the Maksimir disorder and its later symbolism. It confirms the 13 May 1990 riot while including expert caution that the war did not literally start there.
Visit Source →AS USA · News feature
Football, hooligans, and Yugoslavia: the Maksimir riot and its consequences
13 May 2023
Retrospective report stating that the riot spilled into Zagreb streets and that 138 people were injured, including 79 police officers. It also discusses later memorialisation and myth-making.
Visit Source →Reuters · Background report
Bitter Balkan feuds spill into Euros once again
25 June 2024
Later Reuters backgrounder referring to the 1990 Dinamo Zagreb-Red Star Belgrade riot as a notorious football episode linked to long-running Balkan ethnic tensions.
Visit Source →Vreme · Magazine article
The "Maksimir" case - twenty years later
19 May 2010
Retrospective magazine article describing the never-played match in Zagreb, failures in organisation and policing, and the different early TV Zagreb and TV Belgrade accounts of the trigger.
Visit Source →GNK Dinamo Zagreb · Club website
Sjećanje: 13. svibnja 1990.
13 May 2021
Club commemoration of the never-played Dinamo-Crvena zvezda match, stating that major disorder at Maksimir meant the match was not played and was later recorded as a 3-0 default win for the visitors.
Visit Source →GNK Dinamo Zagreb · Stadium page
Maksimir Stadium
No page date stated
Official stadium page giving present venue location and access details, including Maksimirska cesta 128 and approaches from Maksimirska, Svetice, Jakiceva and Budakova.
Visit Source →Football Makes History · Education article
Today in 1990: a match to teach the collapse of Yugoslavia
13 May 2020
Educational article explaining that the match was suspended because of violent clashes and warning against oversimplifying the incident as the literal start of the war.
Visit Source →Croatia Week · Website article
On this day: 31 years since the famous Maksimir stadium riot
13 May 2021
Retrospective article stating that the riot at Maksimir involved Bad Blue Boys, Delije and police, and reporting over 60 wounded.
Visit Source →GNK Dinamo · X post
29 godina od nikad odigrane prvenstvene utakmice Dinama i Crvene zvezde
13 May 2019
Club anniversary post commemorating the never-played Dinamo-Crvena zvezda match of 13 May 1990. The source file notes that search preview confirmed the content, while direct page text was not retrieved.
Visit Source →Dario Brentin · Academic paper
'A lofty battle for the nation': the social roles of sport in Tudjman's Croatia
2013
Academic article on sport and nationalism in Croatia. Its notes cite contemporary Croatian and Serbian press reports about Maksimir and later myth-making.
Visit Source →S. Milojevic · Academic PDF
Youth and Hooliganism in Sports Events
2014
States that Dinamo and Crvena zvezda met at Zagreb Maksimir on 13 May 1990, that the match never took place, and that the skirmish left 60 injured persons.
Visit Source →ifa Culture Report · Academic/report PDF
A Global Game: Football and the making of modern society
2015 / 2016 report context
Reports that Serbian and Croatian fans went on a rampage, giving a breakdown of 79 police officers and 59 spectators injured, and says it was a miracle no one died.
Visit Source →JCER · Academic PDF
SPECIAL ISSUE: Sport and the European Union
2007
Mentions that on 13 May 1990 at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, visiting Red Star fans ripped out billboards and chanted political taunts before the disorder escalated.
Visit Source →Open Sources
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