From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slaven Belupo
Full name	Nogometni Klub Slaven Belupo Koprivnica
Nickname(s)	Slaven Farmaceuti (Pharmacists)
Founded	20 August 1912
Ground	Gradski Stadion Koprivnica, Croatia (Capacity 3,000)
Chairman	Stanislav Biondić
Manager	Krunoslav Jurčić
League	Prva HNL
2006-07	Prva HNL, 5th
Home colours 　 Away colours

NK Slaven Belupo, often referred to simply as Slaven and known internationally as NK Slaven Koprivnica, is a Croatian football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of the country. They play their home matches at the Gradski Stadion in Koprivnica with a seating capacity of 3,000 which is planned to be expanded until the end of 2007/08 season by making completely new all-seater east stand.

The first football club in Koprivnica was founded back in June 1907, when a student team was formed and named Đački nogometni klub, which is Croatian for Students' Football Club. The name Slaven first appeared when a sports club named HŠK Slaven was founded by the members of the Friedrich family on August 20, 1912 and this is considered to be the foundation date of the present-day club. The club won the Croatian regional championship in 1920. Slaven was subsequently renamed HŠK Victorija, but was then disbanded due to financial difficulties and the city of Koprivnica was subsequently without a football club for four years, between 1926 and 1930.

Between 1930 and 1945, the club was known as HŠK Koprivnica, HŠK Danica and RNHŠK Sloga, before the name Slaven returned with the foundation of FD Slaven. Between 1953 and 1958, the club was known as SD Podravka and was then renamed NK Slaven. The name Slaven remained until today, with only the names of the club's principal sponsors being added to it. The club was thus known as NK Slaven Bilokalnik between 1992 and 1994, after which it was given its current name following a sponsorship agreement with the Koprivnica-based pharmaceutical company Belupo.

Slaven gained their first promotion to the Prva HNL in 1997 and have been playing in the league without relegation ever since. In 2000, they surprisingly finished fifth in the Prva HNL and qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. In their first Intertoto Cup appearance, they managed to reach the third round of the competition before being eliminated by Czech club SK Sigma Olomouc after losing 2-0 at home and getting a goalless draw on the road. One year later, they repeated the success and were only stopped by renowned English club Aston Villa F.C. with a 3-2 aggregate defeat. In their next two Intertoto Cup appearances, they were even more successful as they reached the semifinals of the competition on both occasions, only to be eliminated after losing to renowned clubs Stuttgart from Germany and Lille from France respectively. Their last Intertoto Cup appearance in 2005 ended in the third round with a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Spanish club Deportivo La Coruña.

In 2007, the club reached the Croatian Cup final after beating defending Cup holders NK Rijeka 3-2 in the second leg of the semifinals, going on to play Dinamo Zagreb in the final. Although losing to Dinamo in the final, 2-1 on aggregate, Slaven took a place in the UEFA Cup qualifying for the first time in their history, since their opponents had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League by virtue of having won the Prva HNL.

Slaven reached the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup 2007-08, beating Albanian side KS Teuta Durrës 8-4 on aggregate before being eliminated after a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Turkish club Galatasaray S.K..^[1]

No. Position Player 1 GK Vanja Iveša 2 DF Petar Bošnjak 3 MF Kristijan Čaval 4 DF Elvis Kokalović 5 DF Matija Kristić 6 DF Dalibor Božac 7 MF Dalibor Poldrugač 8 MF Dejan Šomoci 9 FW Dino Kresinger 10 FW Srebrenko Posavec 11 FW Asim Šehić

No. Position Player 12 GK Silvio Rodić 13 MF Željko Sopić 14 MF Mateas Delić 15 MF Stjepan Poljak 17 FW Bojan Vručina 19 MF Mato Jajalo 21 MF Mario Jurić 22 MF Danijel Radiček 24 FW Franjo Tepurić 25 GK Goran Bulić 27 DF Ivan Radeljić

• Official website (Croatian)
• Slaven's UEFA page

1. HNL 2007-08 clubs v • d • e
HNK Cibalia | NK Dinamo Zagreb | Hajduk Split | NK Inter Zaprešić | NK Međimurje | NK Osijek NK Rijeka | HNK Šibenik | NK Slaven Belupo | NK Varteks | NK Zadar | NK Zagreb
UEFA Cup 2007-08 v • d • e
Advanced to the Knockout Stage Aberdeen • AEK Athens • Anderlecht • Atlético Madrid • Basel • Bayer Leverkusen • Bayern Munich • Benfica • Bolton Wanderers • Bordeaux • Brann • Everton • Fiorentina • Galatasaray • Getafe • Hamburg • Helsingborg • Marseille • Nuremberg • Panathinaikos • PSV Eindhoven • Rangers • Rosenborg • Slavia Prague • Spartak Moscow • Sporting Braga • Sporting CP • Tottenham Hotspur • Villarreal • Werder Bremen • Zenit St-Petersburg • Zürich Eliminated in Group Stage Aalborg BK • Aris • Austria Vienna • AZ • Copenhagen • Dinamo Zagreb • Elfsborg • Hapoel Tel Aviv • Larissa • Lokomotiv Moscow • Mladá Boleslav • Panionios • Red Star Belgrade • Rennes • Sparta Prague • Toulouse Eliminated in First Round AIK • Ajax • Anorthosis Famagusta • Artmedia Bratislava • BATE Borisov • Belenenses • Blackburn Rovers • CSKA Sofia • Club Brugge • Dinamo Bucharest • Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk • Dyskobolia Grodzisk • Empoli • Groningen • Häcken • Hammarby • Heerenveen • Erciyesspor • Lens • Litex Lovech • Lokomotiv Sofia • Metalist Kharkiv • Midtjylland • Odense • Paços Ferreira • Palermo • Rabotnički • Rapid Bucharest • Rapid Vienna • Red Bull Salzburg • Sampdoria • Sarajevo • Sion • Sochaux • Standard Liège • Tampere United • Twente • União Leiria • Vålerenga • Zaragoza