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Dinamo Zagreb - ponos grada mog!
04.01.2005., utorak
O BBB (english version)
BAD BLUE BOYS
(making hell on stadiums since 1986)
The history of BBB's dates back to the mid eighties when the pioneers of the blue coloured had an image of an organisation.
The legend says that the name Bad Blue Boys was inspired by the movie Bad Boys (Sean Penn) which was quite popular in that time. All over Europe and former Yugoslavia active supporters were becoming a regular part of the football spectacle. It wasn't enough to stand behind your team on home ground and so the most organised began their journeys. When I say organised I dont exactly mean organised by the club (we had those of course but they were very rear), but small groups of people throughout Zagreb's suburbs started forming their own ways about making themselves heard, and they were heard allright. Through the years other cities all over former Yugoslavia wanted their own bit of fame in blue, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Split, Nis, Subotica, Vinkovci, Mostar, Novi Sad, Banja Luka, Osijek, Rijeka, etc... In every opportunity and in every corner of the country Bad Blue Boys made it obvious how much they loved Dinamo, Zagreb and Croatia. Sometimes it had to be shown with fists and real Purgers (the citizens of Zagreb) always stood their ground.
Generations changed over those ten years. Early 90's saw the organisation of the first Fun Club BAD BLUE BOYS. Everyone gave what they could for the love of the team, but those years brought the horrible war. A lot of us think that the war started on the 13th of May 1990 when Red Star Belgrade came to "play". The match was never played, it was played on the stands (which were burned down) and later on the streets of Zagreb. It all started when the supporters from Belgrade knocked the fence down and made their way to the stand which was occupied by regular people, smaller groups who came to watch, not to fight. Bad Blue Boys heard a cry of the nation, and viscously went to defend what was Croatian and for us, that was the beginning of a war. The actual war officially started a few months after. Just like other fans of other Croatian teams, Bad Blue Boys gave lives defending their nation, those were young men full of pride and courage. Together with Torcida (Hajduk Split), Kohorta (Osijek), Armada (Rijeka) they fought together against the serb aggression and a large number of these men died. In honour to these people a few years after the war ended a statue was raised under the western stand of Maksimir.
Eventhough a war was rageing through Croatia, the football league continued and Bad Blue Boys followed every game on the battle fields over the radio transmitters. During war,
out of the blues the legendary NK Dinamo Zagreb was given a new name, and every fan felt unjustified. The name Dinamo is sacred but was considered a communist name by the president during times of democratic revolution. It's not very democratic to change a clubs name without having a vote first, that time Bad Blue Boys were cheated but nobody cared because they were fighting a war for a "democratic" country kilometres away from the capital Zagreb.
Those were hard times for the whole nation, people looked for every possible way to take their minds off the reality, one of these was through sport. But the president felt like having a joke on us again and changed the name yet again to Croatia Zagreb and some of you may recognise the team under that name. Through years Bad Blue Boys were boycotting most of the matches in protest, but the president was a man of principles. The war ended, Croatia was free again, and it took another several years to bring all "criminals", the likes of Zlatko Canjuga to justice, and so it was, the club president retired shortly after the president's death. The sacred name Dinamo Zagreb stands again. And we are at a new beginning, the fans are coming back in large numbers, and we pride ourselves for surviving the times when we had no team to support, but deep in the heart we all knew that Dinamo will be back again.
On formation of Croatian League BAD BLUE BOYS continued to support their club from Maksimir, at home and all over Europe. Because of the lack of quality in the league most of urgers concentrate on the games played in Euro Championships. Never in the last 5 years has Dinamo played away games without their backup from the stands, starting from Auxerre, to Tirana, Belgrade, Newcastle, Madrid... and the list goes on.
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