They are the toast of Croatian football on the cusp of claiming a 10th straight league championship.

But despite a bulging trophy cabinet and an envied production line that's delivered world class talent such as Real Madrid's Luka Modric, Dinamo Zagreb can't buy a home crowd.

Hooligan problems, rumours of entrenched corruption, a family fiefdom and a heavy handed attitude to supposed troublemakers have cut a swathe through the once proud club to such an extent they now play to virtually empty stadiums.

Among the paltry crowd still attending games are supposedly a band of supporters paid by the club to create an atmosphere, while many more have defected to follow a local futsal club.

But how did it get to this?

At a recent match between Dinamo and their much smaller rivals Slaven Belupo I was dumbfounded at the sight of entire sections of the 40,000 capacity Maksimir Stadium completely devoid of supporters.

I had been forewarned that league matches were poorly attended, but the sight of just over 700 people at the home of Croatian football was still bewildering.

Ten minutes before kick-off the area below the west stand was completely deserted except for a lonely looking hot dog vendor and a few bored police. There was not a single fan in sight.

In the stands, the scene was equally bleak. The most popular west stand held fewer than 500 supporters, with the sections bookending it completely deserted.

There was not a single away supporter and the section behind the goal usually reserved for Dinamo's most vocal supporters, the ultras group known as the Bad Blue Boys, would have housed little more than 50 fans at best.

And rumour has it these men, and they are overwhelmingly men, are paid by the club in a desperate bid to create some sort of atmosphere, with most of the BBB banned from Maksimir or boycotting their team's matches.

Meanwhile, a second division regional futsal team, which also sports the name Dinamo is selling out the 5000 capacity stadium it infrequently rents.

At a glance it may seem the darling of Croatian football and the amateur club, made up entirely of volunteer staff and players, are worlds apart, but the stories of the clubs and their supporters are inextricably linked.

One fan named Tomislav who has been forced to quit the Maksimir for Dinamo Futsal's roving home arena said he still loves Dinamo Zagreb and would like to attend their matches but has one major hurdle to following his passion.

"More than 1000 people have been blacklisted, not by the courts but by the club," he told me in a smoke-filled Zagreb pub.

"The only reason is because we are against Mamić."

Zdravko Mamić is by all accounts the most important man in Croatian football. He is the general manager of Dinamo Zagreb and the deputy president of Croatia's football federation, the Hrvatski Nogometni Savez.

In what could also be viewed as a conflict of interest his younger brother Zoran is Dinamo's head coach and sporting director, while his son Mario is an agent to many high profile players, including a number who have come and gone from Dinamo.

Another issue that has particularly enraged members of the BBB who have defected to Dianmo Futsal, is the lack of transparency and democracy in the management of Dinamo Zagreb.

Dinamo Zagreb is a citizens' association that receives public funding and is required to offer all its members the right to vote and be elected to the club's board.

Mamić's critics say Dinamo has become his family's plaything, with the wily GM and his lawyers using bureaucratic loopholes to stop free elections to the board.

Reports in the European press have also suggested that Mamić has personally profited from the transfer of Dinamo players to clubs in the English Premier League, Italy's Serie A and Germany's Bundesliga, by helping broker the deals.

He is also accused of signing 'civilian contracts' with young Dinamo players at the outset of their professional careers, obliging the promising footballers to share their future income with him.

Real Madrid's midfield maestro Luka Modrić, is reportedly required to give 20 percent of his wages to Mamić for as long as he plays professionally. This deal alone earns Mamić more than $1.2 million a year, according to Croatia's Jutarnji List newspaper, which alleges that Mamić has similar contracts with 14 others players.

Footballers who refuse to sign the contracts are reportedly pushed to the margins and denied the opportunity to play.

This was allegedly the case with 19-year-old striker Robert Murić, who is currently with Dutch giants Ajax. After Murić refused to sign a contract with Mamić he claims he was relegated to Dinamo's youth team before being banned from playing or training with them as well as the senior team. The then 17-year-old had to wait until his 18th birthday when his youth contract expired before he was offered a lifeline by Ajax.

Dinamo Zagreb did not respond to questions about Mamić and his personal dealings with players but attributed the poor attendances at Dinamo matches to hooliganism.

"In the last decade GNK Dinamo has paid around one million euros in fines to UEFA because of hooligans and their misconducts in Zagreb, Croatia and all around Europe," A Dinamo spokesman said.

"Also, Dinamo has played home games behind closed doors that resulted in huge financial losses (tickets, sponsors).

"Despite many appeals from the club, coaches, players and rest of the fans, part of the Bad Blue Boys very clearly pointed out that they have absolutely no intention of changing the way the act.

"On the other hand, UEFA put Dinamo on probation and the penalty after the next incident is that the club will be expelled from UEFA competitions.

"That is something Dinamo couldn't afford and the club has decided to defend its interest the only way we can."

Claims from the Bad Blue Boys and other Dinamo fans about Mamić's power within Croatian football have also been vehemently denied by a high-ranking HNS official, who declined to be identified.

He accepted that Mamić is "really influential" but added "the (HNS) board consists of 17 members".

"I would not say he has the ultimate power but he is a powerful guy," he said.

"If he did something wrong he would have been locked up a long time ago. People have been arrested for a lot less serious stuff than he has been accused of."

The HNS official also dismissed the suggestion that Mamić was solely to blame for Dinamo's dismal attendances.

"Empty stadiums is just an example of what happening in the whole league," he said.

"Our best players don't stay here for too long for economic reasons. And the league itself is very weak because we can't keep up with the offers of the other teams in Europe."

He added that the easy access to matches from the likes of the EPL, La Liga and Serie A, as well as the poor quality of Croatian stadia, also eroded attendances.

The official said fans had also been driven away by hooligans, encouraged by lax policing.

"We would like to see the team (Dinamo) supported but it doesn't have much to do with football itself. It is about enforcement of the law," he said.

"People are not saying that we are not taking our kids because of Mamić but because people are throwing stones."

In this respect the HNS and Dinamo Zagreb appear to be in lockstep.

"The fact that couple of other groups inside BBB decided not to go to the games is something which is not good for the club and we are certainly not happy about it," the spokesman said.

"But we really think that any person who loves the club and wants to help it achieve better results supports our decision to stop the hooligans. True fans are not hooligans."

The spokesman added that the club had worked with police to target "well-known hooligans".

He said those who had "more than a couple of arrests, fights and similar misdemeanours" had been banned from Maksimir Stadium.

"First from our stadium and home games but also in co-operation with other clubs they aren't allowed in other stadiums," he said.

However, Tomislav and other fans who oppose the way that Mamić is running the club and Croatian football generally claim they were blacklisted after they voiced their opposition to his rule at a Dinamo home match and not because of violence in stands.

The group says they have also been blocked from buying tickets to Dinamo's home games after singing racist songs referring to Mamić as a gypsy.

When Tomislav tried to join Scottish friends in the away section of Makisimir for the Europa League clash with Celtic with a ticket that was not in his name he said he was thrown in jail for the night.

"Now I can't go to Dinamo or Croatia national team games for one year and I have to pay 5000 kunas ($1000), which is one month's pay for me," he said.

"Just because the ticket was not in my name."

Tomislav, who has supported Dinamo for 18 years, said he feels that his human rights have been violated.

"I have to be at home two hours before and after the games in case the police call," he said.

"I can't spend time with my wife and kid or visit another part of the country on match days."

The effective bans, a heavy police presence at matches and the poor condition of Maksimir Stadium led a number of Dinamo fans to start Dinamo Futsal.

The club's spokesman Luka Capar said the team was established in March 2014.

"Futsal Dinamo was founded on the principle one member, one vote," he said.

"The idea was to have a place for Dinamo supporters to be together and to teach the younger generations to support the club."

Emulating Zagreb's original Dinamo, the team has enjoyed huge success, winning its regional championship, a national cup competition and is now poised to be promoted to the first division.

It also provides a place for Dinamo fans who are banned or have stopped attending games at Maksimir to get together again because, like for many supporters, the results on the pitch sometimes become secondary to meeting up with friends on a Sunday afternoon.

"I have seen some people who I haven't seen for 10, 15 years. They have all come back," he said.

The spokesman added that there had not been a single violent incident at the club despite a small police presence and many of its supporters being Bad Blue Boys, banned from Maksimir Stadium.

"We have shown to the Croatian public that the Bad Blue Boys and the Dinamo supporters are not all hooligans," Mr Capar said.

"We have shown that a club can work on a democratic basis, that clubs and supporters can live together and that Zagreb and the people of Zagreb haven't lost their love for Dinamo.

"We have not given up on Dinamo but this is just one step to make Dinamo a big club for its supporters again. We didn't leave Maksimir alone. We were forced out.

Entire sections of the 'most popular' west stand were empty.

Ten minutes before kick off and the area under the bleachers was only slightly less dead than the stands above.

A handful of fans allegedly paid to create the atmosphere that the Bad Blue Boys once provided.

The Bad Blue Boys are still getting out to the football, they just aren't supporting Dinamo Zagreb.

Dinamo Futsal has more supporters than the stadiums is uses can accommodate.

Maksimir Stadium hosted a meagre 710 fans for Dinamo's home match against Slaven Belupo.