Shooting the messenger might as well be the national sport in Croatia. As Zoran Stevanovic, who works with Uefa as head of the Fare (Football Against Racism in Europe) network in Croatia found out, there seems to be a widespread feeling in the country that racism isn’t really that big a deal unless someone from the outside finds out about it. After Croatia were ordered by Uefa to play their next home game, against Italy in June, behind closed doors, Stevanovic found himself targeted by CFF, the national football federation.

His crime? Telling on Croatia supporters’ racist behaviour during the qualifier against Norway on 28 March – or so the CFF claimed. It started two Wednesdays ago, after news of the ban emerged. “We are shocked by this draconian punishment for five firecrackers and two racist chants,” Damir Vrbanovic, the CFF executive president, told Jutarnji list daily, adding that the federation would appeal and that the man responsible for bringing Uefa’s attention to racist chants was Zoran Stevanovic.

Two days later the CFF addressed an open letter to Stevanovic, starting with: “It is clear to us that your organisation makes a living off informing Uefa against Croatia supporters. It is clear that, in that fight, you won’t hesitate to use the battle against racism as a cover, without feeling any guilt, for your agenda to have Croatia national team play its home games without fans …”

Uvijek vjerni, the official national team supporters’ club, released an open letter as well, saying Stevanovic had “denounced Croatia supporters and the Croatian people as a whole” and insisting there were no incidents – although everyone at Maksimir Stadium or watching on TV witnessed them.

Croatia have a long-standing bad reputation for their fans’ behaviour. At Euro 2012 the federation was fined because supporters racially abused the Italy forward Mario Balotelli; in December 2013 the defender Josip Simunic was suspended for 10 matches by Fifa for shouting, together with the crowd, a salute historically associated with Croatian fascists in the second world war at the end of the home match against Iceland; in November 2014 Croatia supporters threw flares, fought police and made the same chant in the away section at San Siro in Milan, which led to the game being stopped for a period of time, another Uefa fine and a partial crowd ban for the next home match. And when that match came, the same salute – Za dom – spremni (For home – ready) – could be heard several times at Zagreb’s Maksimir Stadium, shouted loudly by hundreds of fans. One section screamed “Za dom” and the other would answer “Spremni!”

And yet Davor Suker, the former striker who is the CFF president, called the atmosphere “beautiful” and said: “We are proud that no serious incidents were recorded.” Last month Suker was elected to Uefa’s executive committee, running on a platform that included the politics of “zero tolerance to racism and discrimination”, despite Serbian allegations that he was a fascist sympathiser. The irony now, of course, is that his right-hand man Vrbanovic is expressing shock and wants to appeal because he feels the disciplinary measure is too harsh for “two racist chants”. How many should there be for “zero tolerance” to take effect? Three, maybe? Six? Eleven?

After Vrbanovic accused Stevanovic of being a “grass”, Uefa’s website was inundated with “Za dom spremni” comments and an angry lynch mob formed on social networks, calling the Fare man a “Serb” and a “traitor”. Part of the media joined in, albeit in a more subtle way, despite Stevanovic saying it wasn’t he who reported it and explaining that the network doesn’t really work that way.

In the end, Fare headquarters released a statement, saying it had sent two independent observers to the Croatia v Norway game. “Fare observers are highly trained and experienced individuals who are independent and carry no affiliation to any clubs or national teams involved in the matches they observe,” the statement said. “Our member groups are unconnected with the action taken by football authorities and should not be subject to recriminations of any kind.”

The CFF has had plenty of experience with Fare and Uefa’s disciplinary sanctions and it is hard to believe that it was not fully aware of how this works, just as it could have expected the crowd ban after the incidents that took place at Maksimir. But still the federation allowed itself to lead the way in a scandalous man hunt, attempting to expose Stevanovic as responsible for getting Croatia the sanctions from Uefa and not the hundreds of fans who took part in shouting the racist salute. Now the question waiting to be answered is: why?

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If there are mass “Za dom spremni” salutes in the stands and no one is around to report them, does Croatia have a problem with racism?

But it’s not as if that is the only football-related problem there. On Monday the CFF delegation – including Niko Kovac, the national team manager – was physically attacked by a group of Hajduk Split fans in a restaurant by the motorway. They were heading to Split to discuss details for the match against Italy. Why were they attacked?

For some time now, Split has been the epicentre of the anti-CFF sentiment. In November last year more than 30,000 people took to the streets there, demanding resignations from the key people in the federation. In an attempt to “soften the tensions”, Suker had suggested switching the venue for the Italy game from Zagreb to Split, where only one qualifier was played in the past 18 years. But on the day the venue change was confirmed by Uefa, the CFF was informed of the crowd ban, leading many people to believe that Suker had expected the sanction and had offered the game to Split because he knew the supporters would not be allowed, which bred further discontent.

“I’m not clairvoyant,” Suker responded. “I don’t want to descend on that level of communication. I can only say the decision shocked all of us in the federation.”

For some, sadly, it is no longer enough to express discontent with words; there are fans who are ready to stop a national team match, as they did in Italy, or physically attack CFF officials.

That shows how much the animosities between the fans and the federation have escalated. The saddest thing is that the national team – featuring fantastic players such as Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic – that should be the source of pride for all Croatia, is the collateral victim here.