Angry Dinamo Zagreb fans strip players

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ZAGREB (Reuters) - Dinamo Zagreb fans angry at their team's poor league showing stripped the players of their shirts at a training session.



Some 50 members of Dinamo's hard-core supporters' club, the Bad Blue Boys (BBB), showed up at training on Monday and demanded the players hand over their blue shirts, saying they were not worthy of wearing the team's colours.


The players finished training in plain shirts.


"I understand our supporters and their disappointment, but this is definitely too much," one of the players, who wished to remain anonymous, told daily newspaper Novi List on Tuesday.


Dinamo president Mirko Barisic said the supporters were only venting their frustration but added he was worried that none of the players put up any resistance.


"That tells you something about their mentality and that is also the way they are behaving on the pitch," Barisic told daily, Vecernji List, referring to the team's poor run this season.


Dinamo spokesman Ado Kozul said there were no plans to increase security for the players after the incident.


"Security guards are always present. They would have intervened if (the BBB) had gotten violent", he added.


Dinamo, who have earned seven league titles since Croatia's independence in 1991, have won only three of their 11 matches and are eighth in the table, eight points behind leaders Inter Zapresic.


The team will wear their trademark blue shirts for Tuesday's Croatian cup match against second division Belisce as the fans only took away training gear.