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Croatia: Erroneous representations of the flag

Flags with wrong placement of the coat of arms
Flags with wrong arrangement of the colours

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Croatia

Flags with wrong placement of the coat of arms

Erroneous representations of the national flag - Images by Željko Heimer, 25 May 2003

Above are shown the two most common erroneous representations of the Croatian flag, as often found in the vexillological literature and otherwise trustworthy sources. These incorrect flags are also often seen on international events, among foreign produced flags.

On both flags, the colours are correct and the coat of arms is shown almost perfectly, even in size. However, the vertical placement of the coat of arms is wrong, resulting from erroneous logic that the emblem should be in the middle.
In the first example, the rectangle framing the coat of arms is centered in the middle of the flag, moving the coat of arms much lower than it should be.
In the second example, the rectangle framing the shield only is centered in the middle of the flag, so that the top part of the shield enters into the red stripe, moving the coat of arms too much towards the top.

The correct place for the coat of arms is such that the top of the shield matches the limit of the red and white stripe. At the same time, the top line of the lower row of squares should match the limit of the white and blue stripes. The four rows of squares should be as wide as the white stripe, allowing for the thin white and red border around the shield that is abstracted in this consideration.

Željko Heimer, 25 May 2003

Flag with wrong arrangement of the colours

During the flag presentation of the alpine skiing giant slalom, in Pohorje, Slovenia, in January 2010, the flag of Croatia was mistakenly presented with the Serbian colors red-blue-white, instead of the Croatian red-white-blue (press report).
Some media tried to interpret the event as some kind of political mischief and to present it as a big scandal, but the politicians and the officials from the ski federations cooled the passions down, apparently, willing to accept it as a simple mistake.

Aleksandar Nemet & Željko Heimer, 19 January 2001