By Thursday, following the match, the official number of arrested fans in Split stood at 137 individuals. Some of those arrested were Dutch Ajax supporters, while others were members of the Torcida. The majority were detained after an attempted mass brawl on the Riva promenade half an hour before midnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Police prevented a clash between approximately 200 Dutch and around 300 Hajduk supporters on that night. Fifty-seven individuals from both sides ended up in police stations. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), 1,900 Ajax fans arrived in Split, of whom 300 were identified as persons prone to breaking the law. Their hooligan group is known as one of the most violent and unpredictable organisations in Europe.
Initial measures and actions were taken as soon as the Conference League draw was made, and assistance arrived from almost all police administrations. The Deputy Chief of Police, Damir Barić, gave a statement to Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). Security in Split began on Tuesday, when the first groups of Ajax fans arrived, with police covering the entire city in a point-by-point manner.
The Head of the Split-Dalmatia Police Department, Marko Srdarević, spoke about the incident on the Riva on Thursday morning. At that time, there were around 100 police officers on the Riva, and a further 100 officers soon joined them. Public order and peace were restored within 15 minutes through intervention; the use of force prevented mutual conflict, and there were no injured persons. Fifty-seven offenders were taken into custody, including 49 guests and eight locals.
Enhanced measures are in place until the last visiting fan leaves Croatian territory, which is expected to be Friday evening. Arrests on Friday targeted domestic offenders who participated in the Torcida cortege before the Hajduk–Ajax match on Thursday afternoon. Police officers raided apartments from the earliest hours of the morning and took individuals identified on video and photographs from the cortege for criminal investigation. On Friday, the first wave of arrests began.
Interior Minister Davor Božinović directly blamed the courts for the situation. He stated that there was a very broad consensus on what happened on the streets of Split and that there were 150 misdemeanor reports this year. Criminal files recorded incidents such as the attack on Serbian water polo players in Split, attacks on Serbs in Uzdolje, and the beating of Stanislav Zavadlav, the younger brother of Filip Zavadlav, the three-time murderer from Split. The stonemason from Solin, who was 26 years old and unemployed at the time, was arrested three times for violent criminal offences linked to hate crimes, ending up in pre-trial detention each time. Before that year, he had accumulated seven criminal and 11 misdemeanor proceedings, some of which had already become final. In February 2019, he attacked three water polo players on the Split Riva.
