The 2002–03 Croatian First Football League, also known as 1. HNL, was the twelfth season of the Croatian First Football League, the national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 24 July 2002 and ended on 31 May 2003. NK Zagreb were the defending champions, having won their first championship title the previous season. Dinamo Zagreb won the title, after a win against Varteks on 17 May 2003.
Teams The league format was changed from the previous 2001–02 season and the number of teams were reduced from sixteen to twelve for the 2002–03 Prva HNL. Because of this, the four bottom-placed teams were automatically relegated to Croatian Second Football League at the end of the season, while the 11th placed Šibenik and 12th placed Kamen Ingrad qualified for the Relegation play-offs. Both clubs then went on to win the two-legged play-off ties against second level sides Vukovar '91 and Istra Pula. Therefore, no team was promoted from the 2001–02 Croatian Second Football League and all twelve teams which contested the 2002–03 Prva HNL were also top flight members in the previous season.
Changes from last season Teams relegated to the 2002–03 Croatian Second Football League 13th placed: Hrvatski Dragovoljac 14th placed: Čakovec 15th placed: Marsonia 16th placed: TŠK Topolovac
Summaries The following is an overview of teams which competed in the 2002–03 Prva HNL. Manager list is correct as of 24 July 2002, first day of the season.
Team Manager Home city Stadium CapacityCibalia Mile PetkovićVinkovciStadion HNK Cibalia 9,920Dinamo Zagreb Miroslav BlaževićZagrebStadion Maksimir 37,168Hajduk Split Zoran VulićSplitStadion Poljud 35,000Kamen Ingrad Vjeran SimunićVelikaStadion Kamen Ingrad 8,000Osijek Milan ĐuričićOsijekStadion Gradski vrt 19,500Pomorac Predrag StilinovićKostrenaStadion Žuknica 3,000Rijeka Zlatko KranjčarRijekaStadion Kantrida 10,275Slaven Belupo Rajko MagićKoprivnicaGradski stadion 4,000Šibenik Franko BogdanŠibenikStadion Šubićevac 8,000Varteks Dražen BesekVaraždinStadion Varteks 10,800Zadar Stanko MršićZadarStadion Stanovi 5,860NK Zagreb Ivan Katalinić ZagrebStadion Kranjčevićeva 8,850
First stage
Rounds 1–22 results
Championship group
Rounds 23–32 results
Relegation group
Rounds 23–32 results
Relegation play-off
Top goalscorers Rank Player Club Goals1 Ivica Olić Dinamo Zagreb162 Boško Balaban Dinamo Zagreb153 Zoran Zekić Kamen Ingrad144 Marijo Dodik Slaven Belupo12 Sandro Klić Rijeka6 Milan Pavličić Osijek117 Veldin Karić Varteks10 Petar Krpan Hajduk Split9 Mladen Bartolović Cibalia9 Ivan Bulat Šibenik Ivica Karabogdan Pomorac Dumitru Mitu Dinamo Zagreb Source: 1.hnl.net
Attendances
# Club Average 1 Dinamo Zagreb 8,281 2 Hajduk 8,250 3 Kamen 4,344 4 Varteks 2,781 5 Rijeka 2,559 6 Zadar 2,469 7 Cibalia 2,306 8 Slaven 2,250 9 Zagreb 2,144 10 Šibenik 1,838 11 Pomorac 1,419 12 Osijek 1,119
Source:
See also 2002–03 Croatian Second Football League 2002–03 Croatian Football Cup
References
External links Season statistics at HRNogomet 2002–03 in Croatian Football at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation