Originally Posted by
londonboy
The point was that the country needed to rebuild the sporting structures in the country after the break-up, and over the 30 years have managed to do this successfully through a systemic approach. Japan has been pushing football hard for a similar period of time (with much greater resources) and what have they achieved? The difference, I think, is that football is cultural in Croatia - kids just go out and play it - whereas in Japan and Australia that doesn't really seem to be the case. Where are places which encourage kids to just go along and kick a ball around with other kids for free?