NK Široki Brijeg

NK Široki Brijeg

Full name	Nogometni klub Široki Brijeg Football club Široki Brijeg
Nickname(s)	Široki, Plavi
Founded	1948; 62 years ago (1948)
Ground	Pecara Stadium Široki Brijeg, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Capacity: 8,000)
Chairman	Zlatan Mijo Jelić
Manager	Branko Karačić
League	Premier League
2010–11	Premier League, 4th
Home colours Away colours

Match NK Široki Brijeg vs. FC Banants on July 9, 2009

NK Široki Brijeg is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian team from the town of Široki Brijeg that currently plays in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Considering the size of the town, NK Široki Brijeg has had a great deal of success and has started to expand that success to European Cups as well in recent years as is demonstrated by the club being a regular competitor in European Cups for the past 8 years.

The club was established in spring 1948, but due to many circumstances, some of them including unfavourable conditions towards the town of Široki Brijeg during the communist rule and relative size of it then, NK Široki Brijeg has experienced its greatest successes in the 1990s and onwards, and has become one of the most successful and organized clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. They play on Pecara Stadium, a modern stadium with a capacity of about 8,000. The stadium itself meets all UEFA criteria. The club also has a fully equipped sports and recreational center just outside of town which is used as training grounds for the team.

Colours and badge

The club wears blue and white striped jerseys at home while away the team has a yellow kit. The club's crest features a football bordered by the club's name and topped with the Croatian chequy.

Škripari

Main article: Škripari

Škripari is the organisation of football supporters of the Croat-backed club NK Široki Brijeg. They also support Široki Brijeg's other sport clubs, primarily HKK Široki in basketball.

The name for the fan club as it exists today was given in 1996. At that time (from the year 1993/1994 onwards, reaching a peak in 1998), Škripari were the only real supporters in Herzegovina, aside from a small faction of supporters in Ljubuški, as well as Torcida Kiseljak and Torcida Mostar who where only really active in home matches of teams that they supported.

The very name Škripari (or križari to be more precise, which means crusaders) is in tribute to those originally known by that name, who resisted communist rule in Yugoslavia for several years after World War II and presented an unsolveable enigma to the communist authorities of that time. They would often hide in caves (local term being the so called škripine) and thus the name Škripari.

An earlier idea for the fan club's name was Broadly Hill Boys dating from the year 1989, more specifically when supporters came up with that name during a basketball match of the Republic league of Bosnia and Herzegovina between KK Mladost LIŠTICA (at the time) and KK Borac Čapljina. It was accepted almost immediately and from that day on all up until the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina a blue banner with the words Broadly Hill Boys written in white could be seen in all matches where the local clubs of Široki Brijeg played. This was a play on Dinamo Zagreb's Bad Blue Boys, as well as a play on the name of their own club (Široki Brijeg means wide, or broad, hill).

Škripari support the Croatian national football team primarily, as well as other Croatian national teams and Croatian players. The official song of the Škripari is Igraj, igraj Široki. They also made a new song with the local Hip-Hop group Berette called U mom srcu rijeci te... Both songs can be downloaded from the Škripari official website.

Current squad

As of 31 August 2011^[1]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Nikola Marić 2 MF Marciano 3 DF Ivica Džidić 4 DF Danijel Kožul 5 DF Slavko Brekalo 6 DF Mateo Bertoša 7 MF Mario Ljubić 8 DF Vedran Ješe 10 MF Dalibor Šilić (captain) 12 GK Luka Bilobrk 13 MF Diogo 14 FW Juan Manuel Varea

No. Position Player 15 MF Wagner 16 MF Dino Ćorić 17 MF Ante Serdarušić 18 MF Jure Ivanković 19 FW Mateo Roskam 20 FW Hrvoje Mišić 21 MF Goran Zakarić 22 MF Mario Kvesić 23 GK Robert Mikulić 24 FW Marko Grgić 25 DF Mihael Pazman DF Jefthon

Notable players

• Juan Manuel Varea
• Stanko Bubalo
• Mario Bazina
• Saša Papac
• Ricardo Baiano
• Mirko Hrgović
• William Etchu Tabi
• Vladimir Vasilj
• Boris Pandža

Honours

Široki won two Bosnia and Herzegovina championships as well as five First League of Herzeg-Bosnia championships that served as the top football league for Croats clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina until merger into Premier League in 2000. The club also won one Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup title in 2007. In the following table defunct competitions are indicated in italics.

Honours	No.	Years
League
Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina Champions	2	2004, 2006
Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina Runners-up	3	2002, 2008, 2010
First League of Herzeg-Bosnia Champions	5	1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
First League of Herzeg-Bosnia Runners-up	1	1999
Domestic cups
Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup Winners	1	2007
Bosnia and Herzegovina Football Cup Runners-up	2	2005, 2006

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg.
2002–03	UEFA Cup	QR	Senec	3–0	2–1	5–1
		R1	Sparta Prague	0–1	0–3	0–4
2004–05	Champions League	QR1	Neftchi Baku	2–1	0–1	2–2 (a)
2005–06	UEFA Cup	QR1	Teuta	3–0	1–3	4–3
		QR2	Zeta	4–2	1–0	5–2
		R1	Basel	0–1	0–5	0–6
2006–07	Champions League	QR1	Shakhtyor	1–0	1–0	2–0
		QR2	Hearts	0–0	0–3	0–3
2007–08	UEFA Cup	QR1	Koper	3–1	3–2	6–3
		QR2	Hapoel Tel Aviv	0–3	0–3	0–6
2008–09	UEFA Cup	QR1	Partizani Tirana	0–0	3–1	3–1
		QR2	Beşiktaş	1–2	0–4	1–6
2009–10	Europa League	QR1	Banants	0–1	2–0	2–1
		QR2	Sturm Graz	1–1	1–2	2–3
2010–11	Europa League	QR1	Olimpija Ljubljana	3–0	2–0	5–0
		QR2	Austria Wien	0–1	2–2	2–3
2011–12	Europa League	QR1	Olimpija Ljubljana	0–0	0–3	0–3

References

1. ^ "NK Široki Brijeg". UEFA.com. 31 August 2011. http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2012/clubs/club=73387/index.html. Retrieved 19 September 2011. 

External links

• Official website of NK Široki Brijeg (Croatian)
• Škripari Fan Website (Croatian)
• NK Široki Brijeg at UEFA.com