Marin Brbić

Marin Brbić (born 24 August 1961) is a Croatian businessman and economist who has been chairman of the Croatian football club Hajduk Split since 2019, currently serving his second mandate at that position.

Brbić started his career in tourism. He was the hotel director and board member of the major hotel company "Bluesun" with its headquarters in Zagreb. In June 2012, he applied for the job as chairman of Hajduk Split.

Brbić became president at a time when the club suffered an economic crisis and owned more than 15 million euros of debt. Brbić managed to get a loan from the banks for an amount of almost 4 million euros with the City of Split as bondsman for the loan. He managed to sell the clubs most worthy players and lowered the wages drastically. During his time, Anton Maglica was the only player in which Hajduk paid money for a transfer deal in July 2012. Until 2016, Hajduk only got players who were free of contract.[1]

Brbić managed to close the economic gap and in recent years Hajduk started doing financially positive. It was revealed in 2016 that Hajduk was no longer in a financial crisis but a small debt to the City of Split still exists.[2]

As Hajduk was in a very hard financial situation, good sport results were not expected at that time. During his presidency that lasted 4 years, club changed 4 managers and 3 sports directors. During that time, Hajduk won 1 trophy (2012–13 Croatian Football Cup), finished 2 times as 3rd and once as 4th in the Croatian First Football League and achieved two times to enter into the playoff round of the UEFA Europa League in 2014 and 2015.

During the 4-year period he served as president, quality players such as Ante Vukušić, Josip Radošević, Mario Pašalić, Antonio Milić, Dino Mikanović, Andrija Balić, Mijo Caktaš and Jean Kouassi were sold in order to solve financial situation.[3] Marketing activities and income significantly increased and a lot of new sponshorships were gained.[4][5]

On 4 June 2014, at a parking lot in Dugopolje, Marin Brbić was attacked by Alojzije Šupraha, the referee chairman of the Split-Dalmatia County. The incident happened after Brbić attended a Hajduk Split youth match where they won a trophy. Marin Brbić suffered a punch to the head and medical assistance was needed. The incident went to court and Šupraha was convicted. He was sentenced to 7 days in prison and a 6-month probation.[6]

Due to the irregularities in Croatian football, in November 2014. Hajduk refused to play a derby against Dinamo in Zagreb.[7] As a consequence on 29.11.2014. there was a large protest against Croatian Football Federation in Split supported with more than 30000 people.[8] The result was modification of the Sports law by Croatian parliament in 2015.[9]

In June 2015, Brbić was elected for the next 3 years as a president.[10]

On 1 April 2016, the supervisory board of Hajduk voted 5-to-4 for the resignation of Marin Brbić after a series of bad results on the football pitch but the true reasons were never completely explained.[11][12]

During the Croatian local elections, 2017, he ran as an independent candidate for the city council of Tučepi. He finished 3rd with 21,20 % of the vote which was enough to secure him a place in the council.[13]

On 6 March 2019, Brbić was announced as the new president of Hajduk Split for the second time.[14]