The match was the last preparation friendly (known as the dress rehearsal) for Ivica Osim's Yugoslavia side ahead of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

Play on the pitch quickly became secondary as the match turned into another football-related incident reflecting ethnic tensions and rising nationalism in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Ten years following the death of Yugoslav lifetime president Josip Broz Tito, SFR Yugoslavia was crippled by rising ethnic tensions.

SR Croatia's first parliamentary elections took place from 22 April to 7 May 1990 with nationalist right-wing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by Franjo Tuđman winning in a landslide.

Croatian midfielder Zvonimir Boban kicked the policeman Refik Ahmetović and as a result got suspended by the Football Association of Yugoslavia (FSJ) for six months, causing him to miss the 1990 FIFA World Cup as well as the pre-tournament preparation friendlies.