We wish all the best to our Bad Blue Boys for their 39th birthday

Happy birthday to our Bad Blue Boys! This Sunday "there are 39 candles on the cake" and we are slowly approaching a "round" anniversary. Although there have been different interpretations about the exact date of the group's founding, the Boys themselves have accepted August 17, 1986 as their birthday, so we can say that the BBB as an organized group of supporters were born on this day 39 years ago.

The inspiration for the group's name came from the movie classic "Bad Boys" in which the lead role was played by Sean Penn. The Boys, of course, had clear outlines and characteristics of a fan group even before that date, which is one of the reasons why in March 1991, during the celebration of the fifth anniversary, at the match against Belgrade's Partizan, they leaned on a slightly earlier date, March 17. In that match on the fifth anniversary, the celebratory song echoed from the then "blue" stands of Maksimir... Over time, the group's representatives eventually accepted, as they themselves point out, a "historically more accurate date" and verified August 17, 1986 as a kind of blue fan big bang.

It was on that date that an unforgettable championship match was scheduled in Split where Dinamo outplayed Hajduk with a score of 4-0. This brilliant performance by the team from Maksimir is especially interesting after Dinamo's elimination from the Cup just four days earlier. They stumbled during an away game in Banovići where the lower league team Budućnost defeated them in a penalty shootout. And then followed a sudden renaissance and a rhapsody of the blues at Poljud. Not only did Dinamo celebrate with a 4-0 victory, but they dominated the game, chances... There were also some distinctive journalistic descriptions of Dinamo's performance: "a symphony in blue", "a Brazilian party of Dinamo", "it was quite realistic, quite objective and quite achievable for Zagreb's team to score seven or eight goals to zero".

The game leader was Marko Mlinarić, the goals were scored by Josip Jozo Bogdanović, Davor Matić, Mladen Munjaković and Ivan Cvjetković. The match is also remembered for the debut appearance of the then young Dinamo defender, our dear and never forgotten Dubravko Pavličić...

It was the day when the specific name for the Zagreb fan group was first launched into orbit - Bad Blue Boys.

In the mid-eighties, it was a time of expansion of organized supporter groups, with the Boys particularly standing out with attractive choreography, passionate and loud cheering on the old northern stand, on the eastern stand, and a bit later on the south stand, soon becoming a symbol of resistance to the system of that time.

At the entrance to the Maksimir stadium, near the west stand, since 1994 there is a monument to the supporters who died in the Homeland War. Dinamo's leaders and representatives of the team light candles and lay wreaths at that spot every year, paying special tribute to the fallen supporters. It is also a reminder of the events of May 13, 1990, and the never-played match between Dinamo and Red Star.

While a group of troublemakers in red and white scarves were breaking chairs and stone blocks and setting fire on the south stand, the police calmly watched it all. However, they unleashed all the force of the "iron fist", muscle power and repression, with water cannons and tear gas, when Dinamo's fan group, witnessing the destruction of their stadium, launched a counterattack and tried to restore order instead of the inert police. It was precisely the issue of double standards and selective actions of security forces that provoked anger and outrage among the fans, as well as ordinary football enthusiasts, and therefore we still remember that May 13, 1990 as resistance to the system of that time.

With the independence of the Republic of Croatia and the formation of the independent First HNL, the glorious name of the club disappeared by decree, which meant a new mission: the return of the name Dinamo. In those eight and a half years, during which the club played under different names, the stands echoed with "Dinamo! Dinamo!" until finally on Valentine's Day 2000, the "sacred name" came back to life, to the pride of all fans of the blue color.

We wish all the best to our BBB for their 39th birthday!