Croatian Second League

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The Croatian Second League (Druga hrvatska nogometna liga) is the second highest football league in Croatia. The league was formed in 1991 with the dissolution of the Yugoslav Second League and it is operated by the Croatian Football Federation.

In the last five seasons, the league was split in two divisions, one being the Northern Croatian Second League and the other being the Southern Croatian Second League. Each of these two leagues was comprised of twelve teams playing under a system pretty much identical to the one in the Croatian First League. However, for the 2006-07 season there will be the united Croatian Second League comprised of sixteen teams from the entire country. There were also much stricter licensing criteria and some clubs were relegated into the Croatian Third League because they did not fulfil the requirements. The last four clubs in each division were also relegated.

[edit] Croatian Second League in the 2006-07 season

NK Belišće
NK Bjelovar
NK Croatia Sesvete
NK Čakovec
NK GOŠK Dubrovnik
NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac
NK Imotski
NK Inter Zaprešić
NK Koprivnica
NK Marsonia Slavonski Brod
NK Moslavina Kutina
NK Naftaš Ivanić
NK Ogulin
NK Pomorac Kostrena
NK Vukovar '91
NK Zadar

[edit] Promotions and relegations in 2006

The Southern League winner HNK Šibenik was directly promoted into the Croatian First League after the Northern League winner NK Belišće was not issued a licence to play there and NK Inter Zaprešić was relegated from the Croatian First League. The clubs promoted from the Croatian Third Leagues are GOŠK Dubrovnik, NK Moslavina Kutina and NK Ogulin.

Following clubs were relegated into the Croatian Third Leagues for being placed among the last four in their divisions.