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HNK Rijeka is a Croatian football club, from Rijeka on the Croatian coast.
The club was founded in 1946 as "Kvarner" and in this early period it had moderate success in various Yugoslav and local club championships. It changed its name to "Rijeka" on June 3, 1954, and advanced to the Yugoslav First League in the 1957/58 season. It remained in the top tier until the 1969/70 season, when it was demoted to the Second League. It was topping that league but it still took it until 1973/74 to return to the First League, where it would remain all the way until the breakup of Yugoslavia, by and large among the top ten clubs.
Rijeka also won the Yugoslav Cup in 1978 and 1979 and was a runner-up in 1987, and participated several times in various UEFA championships, though overall rather unsuccessfully.
Rijeka has been playing in the Croatian First League since the independence of the country in 1991, generally finishing near the top. It has also played in the Croatian Cup finals in 1994 and participated in the qualifications to the UEFA Cup.
The club's stadium, Kantrida, can hold 22,000 spectators. The fans are known as "Armada".
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