The Prva HNL (Croatian: Prva hrvatska nogometna liga), also known as 1. HNL or for sponsorship reasons the MAXtv Prva Liga, is the top Croatian football league competition, established in 1992. The winners qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Dinamo Zagreb are the current champions, having won their sixth consecutive title in the 2010–11 season, and are the most successful club with 13 titles overall, followed by Hajduk Split with 6 titles.
Since 2003, Prva HNL has been named after its sponsor, giving it the following names:
The Prva HNL was formed in 1991, following the dissolution of the Yugoslav First League, and is operated by the Croatian Football Federation. The first season started in February 1992. Since its formation, the league went through many changes in its system and number of participating clubs. Currently, there are 16 teams participating in the league.
Each season of the Prva HNL starts in late July or early August and ends in May, with a two-month hiatus between December and February. Historically, the teams were split into two groups of six which continued to play separately starting in March. These two groups were known as the Championship League and the Relegation League. However, the 2006-07 season introduced a new system in which everybody plays everybody three times in the season. Upon the end of the first part of the season, consisting of 22 matchdays, a draw is held to pair the teams and decide host teams for the last 11 matchdays of the season. This system brought one additional matchday in comparison to the preceding seasons.
Prva (Serbian pronunciation: [pr̩̂ːʋaː]) or Prva Srpska Televizija or 1Prva (Serbian: Прва српска телевизија, on English: The First Serbian TV Station) is a Serbian commercial television network.
Launched in December 2006, the network is owned by Greek Antenna Group since December 2009. From its inception until December 2009, the network was majority owned by global media conglomerate News Corporation. From its foundation until September 2010, the network was named Fox televizija. During its time under News Corp, it also closely co-operated with News Corp owned networks in neighboring countries such as bTV in Bulgaria and Fox Turkey, sharing production capabilities on specific projects and making use of their experiences.
Fox televizija's CEO for the initial 3 plus years was Dan Bates. In March 2010, three months after Antenna Group took over the ownership from News Corp, the CEO duties were handed to Dejan Jocić.
In March 13, 2012, Prva Srpska Televizija has celebrated 2 years of work.
A its inception, Fox televizija was 49% owned by News Corporation since Serbian laws don't allow foreign-based subjects to own 50% percent or more of a television network with a nationwide broadcasting license. At that time the other 51% stake was spread among Dragan Karanović (21%), ITV2066 d.o.o. (company owned by Branko Salić, 15%), and Istočna TV d.o.o. (company owned by Zoran Popović and Branislav Bukvić, 15%). In 2008, there was a lot of buzz in the media about Fox televizija being sold to CME group, but nothing came of it.[citation needed]
HNL can mean multiple things:
Rising from the darkside
Arriving from beyond
The lord of death approaches
To end all human lives
The pleasure of the torment
Will bring him back to Earth
The time has come for closure
The final hour calls
But there's a way out of the misery
You can join the massacre
Once you're in you're never out
A soldier of the dead forevermore
[CHORUS]
There's eternity for sale