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In the beginning of next year, Croatia will play against Serbia in the qualification round for the soccer world championship 2014 in Brasilia. The game will take place at 22.03.2013 in Zagreb and since I'm in the city for sightseeing around this date, I was thinking about attending this soccer match.

However, I'm not really sure if this is a good idea. Soccer games between Serbia and Croatia have a history of violence and racism. In the last days, the relationship between these two countries got even worse because the two Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac were found not guilty for their suspected war crimes during the war in the Balkans.

Considering the difficult relations between these two countries, I'm asking myself if it is relatively safe to attend a soccer game as a tourist? By safe I mean if there is any realistic danger that I will get into situations concerning violence, crime or racism?

hippietrail
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RoflcoptrException
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1 Answers1

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In Wikipedia there is a page about the relations between Croatia and Serbia

For the first time in history, Serbia as an independent country will be represented by its national team against the Croatian team on March 22, 2013 in qualification group A of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. For the safety of the lives of those attending the next two matches in 2013, the football federations of Serbia and Croatia will cooperate to ban foreign guests from coming to the stadiums at which the two games will take place.

So I think it's not possible to attend this game. And even if's allowed, it's not a good idea. There will be a lot of police, but it will be still dangerous on and around the stadium

Dirty-flow
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