The main purpose of this gradution thesis is to examine and determine the influence of the first Croatian president on football in Croatia during the 1990s, in relation to the Croatian national football team, FC Dinamo and football fan population. Furthermore, all the major events in Croatian football, which significantly contributed to the development of Croatian national identity will be represented. Croatia as a newly established state, created by the disintegration of SFR Yugoslavia, had a difficult task: to get acknowledged on the world map and build a reputation among European and countries all over the world. The main thesis of this study is that the president's authoritative and autocratic rule played a significant role in the management of Croatian football clubs and the national team. Events which will be described point at the rule which used sport success, especially in football, as means to promote its political parties and Croatia as a young state. The analysis of cases from the 1990s clearly describes the state of affairs: on one hand the national football team has a significant influence on the development of national identity and promotes Croatia worldwide, and on the other the president's implication in FC Croatia's (today FC Dinamo) policy leads to antagonism, hostility and frequent fights between the president and FC Dinamo's fan club, the Bad Blue Boys.