Livaja returns to Hajduk's training process after meeting with Graf and García
Split, July 5, 2026 - Marko Livaja is returning to Hajduk's normal training process after a new meeting held at Poljud with sporting director Robert Graf and coach Gonzalo García. In its official announcement, Hajduk stated that the meeting took place in a constructive tone and that the team captain agreed to sign the disciplinary regulations. The club also announced that Livaja would complete a running session during the afternoon, which he had previously been supposed to do at the training camp in Bled. This has, at least temporarily, lowered the tension that marked the Split team's preparations in recent days and raised the question of his status ahead of the start of the European season.
According to Hajduk's announcement, after completing the running session Livaja is expected to join the rest of the team and continue regular work under the guidance of Gonzalo García. The club's message was clear: the focus is shifting to the match against Žilina, which will be played on July 9 at 8 p.m. at Poljud Stadium in Split, in the first qualifying round for the UEFA Europa League. Such an outcome does not erase all the consequences of the disciplinary case, but it changes the tone of a story that, over several days, grew from an internal problem into one of the main topics of Croatian club football. For Hajduk, the most important thing is that it enters the competitive week with its captain once again in the group of players on whom the coaching staff can rely.
What Hajduk officially announced
On July 5, Hajduk announced that sporting director Robert Graf, coach Gonzalo García and Marko Livaja had met at Poljud. In that announcement, the club stated that Livaja had agreed to sign the disciplinary regulations and complete the running session that had remained unresolved from the training camp period in Bled. This set the framework for his return to team work, without additional public escalation. The club's communication was brief but substantively important because it came after several days of uncertainty, various media interpretations and strong public reactions.
In the same announcement, Hajduk emphasized that the focus of the entire club was directed toward the match against Žilina. This is an important message because the case developed immediately before the first official match of the new European season, during a period when tactical preparation, physical freshness and dressing-room stability are expected from the team. The captain's return to the training process does not mean that all relationships have automatically been repaired, but it does mean that the club has decided to continue with him within the working framework of the first team. In sporting terms, this gives García more options in attack and reduces the risk that, ahead of Žilina, energy will be spent on internal tensions instead of on the opponent.
The official announcement also shows that Hajduk tried to establish a balance between two demands. The first is the protection of discipline, hierarchy and the authority of the coaching staff, which is a prerequisite for work in professional sport. The second is preserving the importance of a player who for years has been one of the key faces of the club and who, according to club data, has 202 official appearances, 104 goals and 61 assists in Hajduk's shirt. It was precisely at that point that the case turned into a sensitive issue: how to sanction a breach of the rules while at the same time not destroying the relationship with a player whose sporting and symbolic influence is exceptionally great.
How the case began in Bled
The disciplinary case began during Hajduk's preparations in Bled, where the team stayed in the final phase before the new season. On June 28, Hajduk officially announced that Marko Livaja was leaving the training camp earlier than planned and returning to Split because of a violation of the club's disciplinary regulations and failure to respect the rules set for the time spent at the training camp. At the time, the club said that the decision had been made with the club's interest in first place, while noting that Livaja is important to the club, the supporters and everyone who follows Hajduk. The first announcement was very brief, so it opened space for speculation about whether this was only a disciplinary measure or the beginning of a deeper break.
Two days later, Hajduk published a more detailed explanation. According to the club statement of June 30, a total of eight players, including Livaja, ignored the rule about going to their rooms after a teambuilding event organized during the slot in which the team watched a match of the Croatian national football team together. The club stated that the coach and sporting director converted the planned financial fine into a milder measure, namely a running session. The same statement says that Livaja interrupted his running session, addressed first the sporting director and then the coach inappropriately, and left training on his own initiative.
In that explanation, Hajduk also added an earlier element of the disciplinary chronology. According to the club, Livaja received a verbal warning on June 19 for failing to appear at the official photoshoot for the new kit, while his refusal to sign the disciplinary regulations for the 2026/2027 season was listed as an additional reason for removing him from the training camp. At the same time, the club emphasized that the only officially adopted measure concerned removal from the first team's training camp. Hajduk then explicitly stated that Livaja was not on the transfer list and that he was a player the club was counting on, thereby trying to stop stories about an immediate separation.
Why the return matters ahead of Žilina
Livaja's return to the regular training rhythm comes at a sensitive sporting moment. On July 9 at Poljud, Hajduk opens the two-legged tie against Žilina in the first qualifying round for the UEFA Europa League, while the return leg is scheduled for July 16 at 8:30 p.m. at the stadium pod Dubnom in Slovakia. According to Hajduk's announcement about ticket sales, the first match will be played on Thursday at 8 p.m., and supporter interest is also connected to the fact that this is the first European test of the new season. For a club that as a rule welcomes home European matches in the very strong atmosphere of Poljud, dressing-room stability in the days before the match is as important as tactical preparation.
Žilina is not an opponent that can be reduced to a routine obstacle. It is a Slovak club with European experience, a developed academy and a tradition of producing young players, so in the first meeting Hajduk will have to look for a result that gives it control before the trip to Slovakia. UEFA, in its data, lists the duel as a match in the first qualifying round of the Europa League, and the first match at Poljud carries additional weight because it opens the official season in an international rhythm. In such an environment, every disturbance in the dressing room gains additional weight, especially when it concerns the captain and one of the team's most productive players.
For Gonzalo García, Livaja's return also means a concrete tactical question. Livaja is not only a finishing forward, but a player who often connects the lines, drops to receive the ball, opens space for teammates and can change the rhythm of a match with one move. On the other hand, García will have to show that the authority of the coaching staff has not been weakened by the captain returning after a disciplinary process. This is precisely where the most sensitive part of the outcome lies: the return can be useful only if the rules continue to be applied clearly and Livaja's role is reintegrated into the collective without reopening the same disputes.
Livaja's weight at Hajduk
Livaja's numbers explain why every question of his status at Hajduk is a broader sporting topic. According to the official club profile, he has recorded 202 appearances for Hajduk, scored 104 goals and added 61 assists. On Hajduk's list of official appearances he is among the prominent names of the club's history, and by number of goals he has entered the circle of the club's most important scorers. Such statistics are not just a series of data, but the basis for understanding the emotional bond between the player, the supporters and the city in which Poljud is the central football stage.
But precisely that importance also brings greater expectations. The captain of a team in professional football is not only the best individual on the pitch, but also a person who sends a message to the dressing room through his behavior. For that reason, Hajduk had to be careful in this case not to create the impression that the rules are applied selectively. In its earlier statement, the club directly emphasized respect for the club hierarchy and the interest of the club, which shows that the case was not treated merely as a short-term misunderstanding, but as a question of the way of working in the new season. Livaja's agreement to sign the regulations is therefore an important symbolic step, not just an administrative formality.
For the player himself, this outcome opens an opportunity for the conversation about him to move again from the disciplinary columns to the pitch. At Hajduk, a lot is always expected of Livaja, sometimes even more than of the rest of the team, because over the years he has built the status of a player who can pull the team forward in key moments. Such status does not protect him from responsibility, but it explains why the club could not lightly close the story by ending the cooperation. The return to the training process is now the first real point of calming things down, and the matches against Žilina will very quickly show how much the team has managed to leave the case behind.
Graf and García between discipline and results
Robert Graf, who was appointed Hajduk's sporting director in April 2026, entered this case as one of the people responsible for the sporting system and the implementation of club rules. When he arrived, Hajduk announced that he had previously worked in Polish football, among others at Warta Poznań, Raków from Częstochowa and ŁKS Łódź. His role in Split is not only connected with transfers, but also with building a structure in which sporting criteria and discipline must be clear. That is why his participation in the meeting with García and Livaja had a broader significance than merely resolving one penalty.
Gonzalo García, the coach who took over Hajduk in 2025 and, according to the club announcement, signed a contract until the summer of 2028, also found himself in a sensitive position. Every coach who takes over a club with a strong supporter identity and major individual authorities in the dressing room must find a balance between his own idea of play, discipline and relationships with key players. In this case, García had to defend the rules that the coaching staff had set at the training camp, but also accept an outcome that returns the most important forward to the working process. Such moments often define the team's internal dynamics more than friendly matches and pre-season results.
Hajduk's challenge now is to turn a crisis week into a controlled conclusion of preparations for the European two-legged tie. If the case keeps returning through every press conference, every substitution or every decision about the starting lineup, the team will find it difficult to avoid additional pressure. If, however, the agreement from Poljud is confirmed through everyday work, the case can remain a warning from the training camp rather than a topic that defines the start of the season. In that sense, the responsibility is no longer only on Livaja, Graf or García, but on the entire dressing room, which must show that the European week is being approached as a sporting priority.
Poljud seeks calm before the first European evening
In its call to supporters, Hajduk emphasized the desire for strong and loud support from the stands against Žilina. Such a message is not only the usual marketing part of a match announcement, but an attempt to redirect the energy around the club toward the pitch. Poljud is often an advantage for Hajduk, especially in European qualifiers, but the atmosphere can be a boost only if the team on the pitch looks focused and organized. After several days in which more was said about the disciplinary regulations than about the opponent, the club is now trying to bring back to the forefront a match that has immediate competitive consequences.
The outcome with Livaja is, for now, a compromise: the captain accepts the club's conditions, the club returns him to the normal process, and the coaching staff gets the opportunity to prepare the team with one major open question fewer. It has not been officially confirmed that all relationships have been completely smoothed over, nor would it be responsible to draw such a claim from a short statement. What has been confirmed is that Livaja remains part of the team and that Hajduk enters the week of Žilina with the intention of closing the disciplinary episode. The true confirmation of the agreement will not be in words, but in training, squad selection and the way Poljud will welcome the first European match of the season on July 9.
Sources:
- HNK Hajduk Split – official announcement about the meeting of Robert Graf, Gonzalo García and Marko Livaja on July 5, 2026. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – notice on Marko Livaja's status and explanation of the disciplinary case from June 30, 2026. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – first official announcement about Livaja leaving the training camp in Bled on June 28, 2026. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – information on ticket sales and the time of the Hajduk - Žilina match at Poljud. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – information on the return match Žilina - Hajduk and the away sector. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official profile of Marko Livaja and club statistics on appearances, goals and assists. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official announcement on the appointment of Robert Graf as sporting director. (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official announcement on the appointment of Gonzalo García as first-team coach. (link)
- UEFA – official information about the Hajduk Split - Žilina match in the 2026/2027 UEFA Europa League qualifiers. (link)