The ugly scenes in Saint-Étienne, with supporters turning on each other and more than a dozen flares ending up on the pitch while their team led 2-1, is a result of widespread alienation amid allegations of corruption

Why would a set of supporters try to stop a game while their team is winning? And why would they then start a fight among themselves?

Those were the immediate questions as Croatia fans threw flares on to the pitch before throwing punches at each other during the game against the Czech Republic in Saint-Étienne.

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They are natural questions to ask, but not easy to answer. This is the background, though. A lot of people in Croatia have become alienated from the national team in recent years and there are large movements that have given up on it completely.

They claim to have lost faith in the Croatian Football Federation and have accused it of widespread corruption. The federation’s vice-president, Zdravko Mamic, has been charged with embezzling money from Dinamo Zagreb when he was chief executive there. Damir Vrbanovic, the federation’s executive director, has also been charged as an accomplice in the same case.

Last year, they were taken into custody (Mamic twice, as the investigation extended) amid fears that someone was trying to influence witnesses. Finally, Mamic was suspended from working at Dinamo by the authorities but both men kept their job at the federation and were both in the VIP lounge at the game against the Czechs.

Many fans in Croatia feel the national team has been hijacked by the pair – as well as Davor Suker, the CFF president who is seen by many as their puppet – and turned it into a tool for making money. Mamic and Vrbanovic deny this but there has been a long – and at the moment unsuccessful – campaign to have them removed via the legal system.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Croatia fans fight among themselves following the disruption to Friday’s match. Photograph: Craig Mercer - CameraSport/CameraSport via Getty Images

Some radical fans are so captivated by the hatred towards the CFF that they do not even mind if they are hurting the team with their actions. In fact, it goes further than that. They are now actively trying to sabotage the team, as they feel that international shame and on-pitch failure is the only chance for changes to finally take place in Croatian football.

It is very likely that the same thinking was behind the incident at Split’s Poljud Stadium in June 2015, when someone had painted a swastika on the pitch before the Euro 2016 qualifier against Italy, a game that was already played behind closed doors because of previous crowd trouble.

Their aim may be to introduce more democracy and transparency in domestic football, a chance to start afresh, but their methods are all wrong. Other fans, who still support the team, started a scuffle with them in the stands after the flares were thrown. It is a sad indictment of the whole society that it has come to this.

Among the players and coaching staff on Friday night the sense was one of utter disillusionment. Croatia have four points after two games but no one was talking about the 2-2 draw against the Czech Republic. “Maybe it would be best if we don’t play at all,” said Ivan Perisic, who scored the opening goal for Croatia. “Maybe that would actually be better in case these things are going to happen every time we play.”

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The coach, Ante Cacic, added: “We are all to blame. Let’s not start washing our hands from it.”

He is right, nothing will be won by people in authority not taking control of this ugly situation. The fear, however, is that no one will give in: not the top people at CFF, nor the ultras who are so fed up with them.

And, ultimately, the losers will be the players and the supporters who would love nothing more than having their national team back.