Teams, tales and tips – a guide to the local game
Ignored by the few guidebooks to Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparsely graced by the capricious dots of Google Maps, Posušje seems an unlikely place for the most ambitious club in the country’s Premijer liga to be located. Indeed, since promotion to the top flight in 2021, HŠK Posušje haven’t qualified for Europe nor come close to lifting the Kup BiH.
Posušje is a community, after all, of 6,000 souls, two hotels, half-a-dozen cafés, three or four restaurants and two churches. Set in what passes for a town centre, the football stadium is called Mokri Dolac, ‘Wet Valley’.
But Posušje is only an hour from Mostar and 30 minutes from Široki Brijeg, where the league title has gone every other year since 2004. This is western Herzegovina, whose football clubs sport badges depicting the red-and-white chequerboard šahovnica of Croatia.
Just over the border, almost walkable from Posušje, is Imotski, whose football ground, Gospin Dolac, is dramatically cut into the forbidding karst landscape. Here, Posušje played in the early 1990s while their own ground was being used as a base for military helicopters. Beyond lie the Makarska Riviera and summer money magnet of the Dalmatian coast.
Communities such as Posušje’s have much more in common with Dalmatia and Zagreb than with Bosnia’s rustbelt of Tuzla and Zenica. The HŠK (Hrvatski Športski Klub) team bus rumbles through this disjointed country to fetch up at football grounds little changed since the war that divided the former Yugoslav republic into cantons.
The kinds of pitches that little Luka Modrić, sent to Herzegovina as a callow teenager, would have had to negotiate in 2003-04, only the second season involving teams from the Serbian entity of the country. It was also the first year that the title went to western Herzegovina.
Hot, harsh and arid – the word ‘Posušje’ is derived from the local term for ‘drought’ – Herzegovina’s is an unforgiving landscape, but one awash with Croatian investment in particular pockets. Posušje is one of them. With the long-term Minister of the Economy for Western Herzegovina, Dario Sesar, as chairman, HŠK Posušje have benefitted from major improvements to their stadium, Mokri Dolac.
Originally a field where HŠK predecessors, Zidar, played in 1950, then used by Boksit Posušje from 1963, Mokri Dolac first took shape as a modern ground in 1996 when a newly independent Croatia was funding improvement around Herzegovina.
Two years later, a vast crowd of 10,000 gathered to watch Posušje beat Zrinjski Mostar in a curtain-raiser for the opening of the new stadium. But it’s only since promotion in 2021, as if preparing for Posušje to follow its near neighbours Zrinjski and Široki Brijeg into Europe, that the Mokri Dolac has witnessed the addition of modern dressing rooms, press facilities, offices and a scoreboard.
In 2023 came floodlights, another first. Beside the main pitch, a secondary one has been added for youth football, the fruit of the Ostavi trag project, ‘Leave a Trace’, to build a football academy here. Already, 350 kids are signed up as members, and literally thousands of names will appear on memorial plaques, commemorating all those who have donated.
As for the seniors, the South Stand, Tribina Jug, will soon be covered and be fitted with VIP boxes. A modern sports bar already in place almost completes the picture. All it needs now is for Posušje to edge out a couple of bigger names and claim a first European qualification.
After all, since teams from western Herzegovina have started winning silverware, Široki Brijeg and Zrinjski Mostar have brought the likes of Aston Villa, Aberdeen and AZ Alkmaar to this part of the Balkans – so why not Posušje?
Getting Around
Arriving in town and local transport
Thanks to Croatia Airlines reintroducing direct flights from Zagreb and new eco-friendly airline SkyAlps due to link with several cities in Austria, Germany and Italy from 2025, the nearest airport of Mostar 58km (36 miles) away should soon be better connected for international visitors.
Currently, the 100E bus from Mostar airport is scheduled around arrivals of services from Zagreb and Belgrade, and includes Mostar bus station (10KM/€5) on its route. From there, three or four buses a day leave for Posušje (KM10/€5, 1hr journey time). A taxi all the way from Mostar should cost about 90KM/€45.
If you’re coming from Sarajevo, the bus to Posušje (KM20/€10) should take 2hrs 20mins but may require a change at Mostar.
In Posušje, buses stop by the junction of the main roads of Ante Starčevića and Kralja Tomislava on the north-western corner of town. The ground and few cafés are a short stroll down Marije Jurić Zagorke – everything is walkable. Taxi Jole (+387 63 620 454) is a reliable local firm.
Where to Drink
The best pubs and bars for football fans
The strip of cafés on Kralja Tomislava near the bus stop includes the large and sleek Calipso, with a TV screen and selection of cocktails. Down the main street of Fra Grge Martića, the Centrum is similarly smart, its wide expanse of window allowing you to watch Posušje go by.
Further along, Špica shares its name with the trendy Zagreb custom of socialising in fashionable sunglasses, though that’s probably where the comparison ends here in Posušje. All of these cafés, and the handful of similar ones, open around 7am-8am, close late and serve standard Croatian beers by the bottle, Karlovačko and Ožujsko.
The only real bar, however, is the St Patrick Pub on the south side of town, on Grgura Ninskog/Matije Korvina towards the Motel Penava. Handily located next to a betting shop, it screens games, particularly when Croatia are playing in a big tournament, and occasionally hosts football quizzes – note the scarves on display. There’s craft beer, too, locally brewed Kamen.
Where to stay
The best hotels for the stadium and city centre
At Domovinskog rata 19, on the west side of town a short walk from the ground, the Motel SUPER SAN (+387 63 099 777) feels neat and newly renovated, justifying the rates of around €40 for a single traveller, €60 for two sharing. It also has private parking, manned reception, a restaurant and a terrace – and features on popular hotel-booking sites.
Apart from apartments, the only other real option is the Motel Penava (+387 63 580 580) on Marka Marulića on the south side of town. This comes at around two-thirds the price of SUPER SAN, doesn’t quite have the same standards but would do for a couple of nights. Also provides parking.
