Serbia: A Nation where Sport and Politics are Intertwined
By: Micah Dewey
Introduction
Football, the beautiful game, played by more than 265 million people worldwide, is far and away the most popular sport globally. There are many sociological, political, and economic impacts that football encompasses. However these effects are not necessarily benign in nature. Despite FIFA’s. (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) best attempts to eradicate racism, and inequality in the sport, there are still monthly cases to the contrary. There is an argument that the world of football is no closer to ending racism than it was when FIFA began it’s “Say NO to Racism” campaign in 2006. Politics have always had a place in football, both directly in the foundation of clubs, supporters groups or indirectly via sponsorships and social objectives. There can be no separating politics and football, especially when it comes to the case of Serbia, and former Yugoslavia, including its autonomous republics. As stated by Orhan Ymeri, secretary of the Organisation for Physical Culture in Presevo. “The status quo must be changed. Sport is being held hostage by politics.” In light of this, what is it that makes the Belgrade Derby so alluring? Why is it that Serbia is a place in which vast amounts of news and controversy can arise?
History
The birth of modern sport in former Yugoslavia came as it did in many other countries, rising from the ashes of World War II. In March and October of 1945, two of the great European sporting societies were born; FK Crvena Zvezda Beograd and FK Partizan. Crvena Zvezda, was founded by the United Association of Anti-Fascist Youth of Serbia, while Partizan would be formed around the members and officers in the Jugoslavenska narodna armija or JNA. These two groups of initial founders would slowly grow into new roles in the communist Yugoslav government under Marshal Josip Tito. Zvezda would be funded and supported by the Serbian Secret Police under direct supervision of the Communist Party and the Ministry of the Interior, while Partizan remained with the Ministry of Defense. These two groups would start a burning rivalry and this would continue throughout the years until today. The post-World War era in Serbia was led by a communist regime, and was heavily anti-fascist. Thus allowing for both sets of supporters and founders to find their own niche.
Crvena Zvezda and Partizan are both names derived from symbols and popular movements inside the Yugoslavian governmental system. In Serbian, Crvena Zvezda literally means “Red Star” and as with many communist nations, the red star is a very important symbol in the sense that it is unifying. The symbolism of Red Star and the connection with the party made many Serbs see it as the “people’s club” The name of the club itself was ‘associated with the five pointed star in which we spilled our blood in the course of the revolution.’ . Despite being the people’s club, and the largest in Yugoslavia, the belief was that it was a largely Serbian club. In the press between 1991 and 1992, one of Belgrade’s largest newspapers, Zvezdina Revija, reported many times on the meaning of Crvena Zvezda to Serbians.
“The idea became firmly established that the greatest value of this club was its Serbian identity, and that supporting Red Star meant, in fact, supporting ‘Serbdom’ and Serbia. Thus one article in Zvezdina Revija, in August 1991, claimed that ‘Red Star was a European club in its results but in its origin and through the allegiance of its fans, supremely Serbian’. Particular emphasis was given to the fact that ‘For Serbs from Croatia, Red Star is practically part of their national identity!’They did not dare to say out loud what they were by nationality until recently, but could say who they supported – always! ‘Red Star is more than a football club, it is a symbol of Serbian being’ is a quote from one of the last issues of Nasa Riječ, the newspaper of the Serbian nation in Croatia.”
This method of club creation had occurred in many other Eastern European countries around this time as well, with one major club being founded by the party in charge and the second club being founded by the army. One excellent example of this can be found in the former USSR, where the two clubs, Spartak Moscow and CSKA Moscow, with very similar roots, continue to have a rivalry similar to that of Crvena Zvezda and Partizan, Spartak was supported by the Communist Party and CSKA the Army. Incidentally, Spartak and Zvezda are close allies in the terms of fan support, as is CSKA and Partizan, with fans of the respective teams often time showing up and forming alliances with the clubs in partnership. These club affiliations have been getting even stronger in the last several years. Along with the aforementioned collaborations, two of the major Greek sides, Olympiakos and PAOK, have also joined in on the connection between ultras, and fans in general. Gate 7, Olympiakos’ Ultras have a very close tie to the Delije, and have even been known to come to Belgrade for the derby. PAOK fans are also closely tied with Partizan, with similar actions taking place.
In August of 2015, Partizan was meeting Belarusian side BATE Borisov in Belarus in a Champion’s League qualifier. Three hundred Grobari (Partizan Ultras) made the trip to Borisov, however were supplemented by nearly a thousand CSKA fans from Moscow in support of their “Serbian brothers”. These actions are not uncommon when it comes to these major sporting clubs, however it can get more extreme and extend to violent altercations between opposing supporters groups or alliances.
During research and living in Belgrade, one thing is certain, Serbs and Russians stand together on almost all things. There are many reasons for this, however two of the biggest reasons are the ideology of Slavic Brotherhood, and Christian Orthodoxy. The political ties between Serbia and Russia are as close as their sporting connections. The diplomatic relations between the two nations have been in place since 1839, and continue to this day. Russia has held fast to their position of Kosovo being a territory of Serbia, and Serbia in turn has defended Russian actions in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Crimea. The relationship goes farther than ethnic and religious ties, it is a mass movement, pushed along by the support and direction of sports fans and clubs.
Kosovo, the southernmost territory of the Republic of Serbia, is one of the focal points of unity between both Russian and Serbian supporters. In Serbian, “Kosovo je Srbija” is one of the most common phrases to see at football matches, but also on bumper stickers, graffiti and even t-shirts. The opinion on Kosovo is simple; Kosovo is part of Serbia, just as Vojvodina is. According to an interview released by B92, Delije-North’s official viewpoint on Kosovo is simple, “All individuals and media who have tried to ruin the positive image of Serbia should be ashamed. The public has to be more energetic in promoting the attitude Serbia is united regarding Kosovo independence, and this should be the image send out to the world”. What the interviewee is referring to was the silent mass at St. Sava Chapel and the unity march in Belgrade in 2008 shortly after Kosovo declared itself an independent state.
In October 2015, in a game between Lokomotiv Moscow and Skënderbeu Korçë (Albania), Lokomotiv ultras commenced with chants of “Kosovo is Serbia”. The Albanian club filed a formal complaint to UEFA after the match citing “racism and incitement to violence”. The irony of an Albanian club claiming racism, is that there was an European Qualifier game in Belgrade abandoned due to a drone carrying a “Greater Albania” flag less than a year ago. The situation in Kosovo has gotten worse over the past few years, anti-Serb forces have destroyed and burned down Serbian heritage sites and monasteries, yet these types of actions have led to no response from the international community as a whole, besides Russia.
It has been clear that the methods of club creation was not exclusive to slavic nations, Romania and Hungary also had a very similar structure in their early days. In Romania, Steaua București was the club run and owned by the army, and is still to this day owned and run by the Romanian Army. During the same period Dinamo București was formed under the Interior Ministry and the Communist Party. All six of these above mentioned clubs are still in existence today, and still have a bitter rivalry with the opposing club.
Yugoslav War and Impact
There were warning signs that signaled the disaster that was to ensue, first the declaration of independence by Slovenia, and then the ominous day in Zagreb. In May of 1990, in a match between Dinamo Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda a riot broke out, leading to the inevitable civil war that would cause chaos in the region. There were 3,000 Delije (Crvena Zvezda Ultras) attended the match in Zagreb just weeks after the first multiparty election since the second World War:
“The match between Dinamo and Red Star was played two weeks after the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), under the leadership of Franjo Tuđman, won the first free parliamentary elections in Croatia. The HDZ’s ultra-nationalistic program, complementary to that of the successors of the Communist Party under Slobodan Milošević, did not inspire hope for a peaceful solution to the Yugoslav crisis. In this respect, the actions of the two fan groups – Red Star’s Delije and Dinamo’s Bad Blue Boys – was not the least bit surprising.”
The riots at Maksimir would unofficially be seen as the first battle of the Yugoslav War. Those who fought with knives and fists in the stands, and on the field in Zagreb that day would soon be fighting with guns over the independence of their peoples. The leader of the Crvena Zvezda supporter group Delije, Željko Ražnatović, also known as Arkan, was in attendance at the game leading and provoking the riots and violence in the stadium.
Ražnatović was one of the men responsible for combining the Zvezda ultra groups whom at one time were rather divided. In the beginning of the 1990’s the fans of Red Star were divided into supporters of Milošević, Šešelj, and Drašković. Arkan united fans, hence the negative fan energy was directed towards the Croatians. Fans of other football clubs chanted against Muslims and Albanians, hence the nationalism, disguised as patriotism, served to unite fans of all football clubs. The unified Red Star Ultras would become not just a group of hardcore football supporters but also a substantial paramilitary force, the Serbian Volunteer Guard, which would infamously become known as Arkan’s Tigers. Ražnatović would be indicted on war crimes following the war for his actions in Croatia and Bosnia, but would never stand trial due to his murder in 2000 in Belgrade.
The relationship between football “hooliganism” and politics were given legitimacy following Crvena Zvezda’s victory over Olympique de Marseille in the European Champion’s Club Cup, the largest European football competition and the precursor to the Champion’s League. Ethnic nationalism rose from this victory, it was also seen as a great success for the Serbian people not just the club itself. The irony in this perception of the success in May of 1991, is that on the cup winning team, there were many stars from each of the Yugoslavian nations, not just Serbs. Serbian nationalists were proclaiming their sporting superiority over not just the rest of Europe but also the other Yugoslav republics, the catch is that there were more non-ethnic Serbs in the winning side than “pure Serbs.” According to Jonathon Aspey of TheseFootballTimes.co :
“It is amazing to consider that while Yugoslavia fell apart due to societal, racial, political and historical issues, the Red Star side were incredibly successful at featuring players from the various states within Yugoslavia, players that all co-existed and worked together to conquer Europe.”
These facts as Mr, Aspey points out, were seemingly lost, or ignored by the Serbian people.
Even the most extreme Crvena Zvezda fans, the Delije, had become increasingly more ethnocentric, and ultranationalist under the leadership of Arkan. Serbian President Slobodan Milošević had the vision for a Greater Serbia, and as the fall of Yugoslavia was all but confirmed, he would try to unite all ethnic Serbs into a unified state. Many Delije would champion the flag of Greater Serbia, and saw that their success in Europe would only bring legitimacy to their ultranationalist claims. The Serbian nationalist movement was either designed with primarily the young men in these Ultras groups in mind, or the appeal of violence brought them out in support of a heroic, noble cause. Conspiracy aside, author of Belgrade: A Cultural History, David A. Norris, states that: “It is open to debate whether the support of football “hooligans” for Serbian paramilitaries was the result of a plot to engage a large number of aggressive young men in the nationalist cause, or these aggressive young men gravitated towards a centre of violence.”
However, in my opinion, this was the birth of ethnic cleansing in the region, which would be carried out on many occasions by Arkan and his Tigers both in Vukovar and Bijeljina. Football supporters, unquestionably united by the love of a club, had been also united by violent nationalism. The war held a heavy toll on all fronts, and it wasn’t until 1999 that the fighting ended. However the aftereffects of the conflict are still fresh in people’s minds.
Football had a chance to unite people against the atrocities that were presented in Yugoslavia, however the ultras and other supporters seemingly encouraged the hostilities. There is still a large amount of animosity towards Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and especially Kosovars, in Serbia.
Serbian Football post-1999
The Yugoslavian league would be destroyed by 1992 as would the rest of the unity of nations. Thus ending Yugoslavian dominance in the arena of football, and other sports up to today. With the nation being split into many smaller countries, the overall quality of sportsmen that would be produced would be relegated rather significantly. It wasn’t until the 2015 Under-20 World Cup that Serbia would see national glory on the sporting ground.
Today, in 2015, the rivalry between Partizan and Crvena Zvezda has not subsided in the least bit. The connection that one has to their club is not something that is not easily broken, and these two sets of supporters show this both in artistic and violent ways. Despite Partizan’s dominance over the past fourteen years winning the league ten times, with a string of six in a row, Delije and Grobari are still as fierce of rivals as there is in world football today. The British online news outlet the Daily Mail Online, ranked the “Eternal Derby” as the #4 greatest rivalry in world football. This great rivalry not only takes place on the pitch and in the stands, but also in the streets, cafes, and taxicabs of Belgrade. It seems like literally every person in the city has a preference; Red or Black, and oftentimes it is very visible. These are the people who make the rivalry what it is. It’s not necessarily the ultras battling against each other and the police that makes the rivalry great. It is the explosive adrenaline-rush atmosphere, that supporters of both teams, can and will bring to the stadium every derby day.
Both clubs have been successful on the international stage, however in recent times, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, their dominance has been highly contained within the borders of Serbia. As stated before Partizan went on a streak of six national championships in a row, however during this same time they have never qualified out of a group stage of either the Europa or Champions League. This has led FK Partizan to a UEFA coefficient ranking of 109th in Europe. Crvena Zvezda has also had no international success since their winning of the European Champion’s Club Cup in 1991. Leaving them more than one hundred places behind their bitter rivals in the European club ranking. This is something that is important not only for personal club pride but is also used by UEFA, the European football governing body, for determining the quality of each individual domestic league. Serbia has fallen significantly in those rankings as well, making it even harder for these clubs to obtain European success. Of UEFA’s 54 national members, Serbia is ranked only 27th, which places them behind every “major” league on the continent. Comparatively to the other former Yugoslav republics, only Croatia has a higher national ranking at 17th, which is understandable due to the success of Dinamo Zagreb in the past several seasons.
Despite the numbers, and rankings that UEFA has placed on the Serbian league and clubs, the desire to compete at the highest level still exists in Belgrade. One of the biggest effects of the war, where sport is concerned, is in the marketplace for young talents. Partizan, especially, has been flooding the European game with elite talent, and promising prospects. This could be seen as a positive effect, however this leaves the home clubs without some of their top homegrown talent. This equates to the numbers seen above. While many players have moved on from their first club, whether it be Partizan or Crvena Zvezda, the Serbian national team has started to see some success, especially in the youth levels. In Serbia’s 2015 U-20 World Cup winning squad, eleven of the twenty-three players on the squad played for either Crvena Zvezda or Partizan.
Over time there has been some movement towards the privatization of the clubs in the Serbian league. Unfortunately, the process has been slowed significantly by bureaucratic nightmares including the laws “left over” from the time of the communist government, and the actual bylaws of the clubs involved in the privatization process.
Some of the biggest problems for Serbian football are interrelated to finance and politics. The world economic crisis did Serbia no favors, and many of the clubs including Crvena Zvezda and Partizan have been affected in near disastrous ways. First, the laws that determine how the clubs are classified, as “publicly owned community organizations”, have been in act since the birth of Yugoslavia in 1945, and have not changed. Personally, there are a few major issues with this. First, the country that these laws were written in, is no longer in existence today, so why are these laws still legitimized? Secondly, even if there is some legal way of legitimizing these laws, why has there been no change, especially since the communist government that these clubs were founded on is no longer in power? The good news for Serbian football and the people involved in the clubs is that there has been some movement regarding these above concerns. Zakon o Sportu or the Sports Act has been written and revised to ensure that football clubs in particular are to be made into “companies” within two years.
In my opinion this will have one of two possible outcomes on Serbian football. Either the clubs will become profitable, needing to charge more for tickets and merchandise, or they will crumble into bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it is all too common for great clubs with a prestigious history to resort to filing bankruptcy and entering administration. One of Scotland’s big two, Glasgow Rangers F.C., met with this fate in 2012, after running up over £29 Million in debt. It would be detrimental to Serbian football to lose one of its premier clubs. As of October of 2015, Crvena Zvezda has accumulated over €41 Million in debt.
Crvena Zvezda was disqualified from the Champion’s League in the 2014–15 season due to “a breach of a number of provisions of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play regulations”. An official complaint was made to UEFA based on the existence of “overdue payables”, or the €41 Million in debt, that had not been paid. This missing payment, cost Crvena Zvezda an inordinate amount of money that they would have been brought in for television contracts, prize money, extra ticket sales, and sponsorships.
Luckily for Partizan supporters, the disqualification of Red Star, allowed the Crno-Beli to get into the Champion’s League instead. Partizan would eventually get knocked out by BATE Borisov of Belarus in the final qualifying round, sending Partizan to the Europa League group stage. Crvena Zvezda’s disqualification and Partizan’s inclusion was worth at minimum €6 Million. This money would have gone a long way in improving the situation over at the Marakana, instead it went to their bitter rivals.
The financial issues that Crvena Zvezda have had can also be attributed to the lack of strong leadership at the head of their organizational structure. Since 1945, Crvena Zvezda has had twenty-four club presidents, however in the last ten years, they have had seven. The lack of consistency is something that is very common in sports in general, however in European football it seems to be even more common. Gazprom has been willing to sponsor the football club, and as Crvena Zvezda’s only sponsor, they could very much be what is keeping the organization afloat. Many reports have been arising in the last few months of 2015 regarding the Gazprom and Crvena Zvezda partnership extending to ownership and operation. TASS, a Russian News Agency reported that Gazprom, was “likely to buy Serbia’s Crvena Zvezda for $132 Million.” The details included in the TASS report seem to lie within the privatization model that the Serbian government has been pushing forward over the last decade or so. According to TASS:
“As part of the deal at the issue, the Serbian government will receive a compensation of €40 million ($53 million), Belgrade’s municipal budget will gain €20 million (over $26 million) and €40 million ($53 million) will be channeled to repay the football club’s debts.”
All of the details of the deal would fall in line with both the reported debt, the government’s desire to privatize, and of course the actual fee for the club itself. Surprisingly, the Serbian government is valuing the club at only €60 million, which by modern football standards seems rather low.
Despite the troubles occurring to the team in red, those in black haven’t had a stroll in the park either, especially since the world economic downturn. According to Miloš Marković of FutbolGrad; “Serbian football shares the fate of the nation’s troubled economy. With no money to cover basic expenses such as the player’s wages, and with many clubs having their bank accounts blocked, the clubs are struggling to make ends meet. This year FK Partizan had to deal with a work stoppage when the employees demanded that the club pay their wages. The players were also unhappy because they too had gone without paychecks” These situations unfortunately happen more often than they ever should, especially at a world-class club such as FK Partizan.
Corruption and Investment
Despite the doom and gloom that the last chapter provided regarding the overall state of football in Serbia, there is a still a glimpse of positivity concerning the future. With the highly realistic possibility of big money coming in via Russia and the consistent production of young talent coming from the likes of Partizan and FK Vojvodina, the future of Serbian football has a light at the end of the tunnel. Assuming Serbian football makes it to the end of the tunnel that is.
After looking at some of the breaks that Partizan has had, and the potential cash flow that Gazprom could bring Crvena Zvezda, there are still some major questions left to be asked. B92 TV, one of Serbia’s largest online and television media outlets had been investigating allegations of corruption and fraud in Serbian football from the highest levels all the way down to the referees. B92 claims that:
“The clubs’ management boards are still part of the political spoils of the ruling parties, just as is the case with public companies. A lack of control of the money that flows into clubs that are formally sports associations, neither private nor state-owned, allows for numerous abuses, but relevant institutions do not deal even with obvious violations of the law – effectively granting Red Star (Crvena Zvezda) and Partizan football clubs a special status.”
As stated in the section regarding the Sport Act, the reality is that these sports organizations are neither privately owned, nor publicly owned, officially. This leaves room for corruption to be exploited to great measures without any great social responsibility. Often times the party in power will appoint someone sympathetic to their platforms onto the board of directors at these clubs, allowing them to reap the sweet rewards of government-aided corruption of the beautiful game. B92 has taken extreme measures to oust those involved in these scandals, yet there has been little to no change whatsoever.
Here is an example of how the corruption in Serbian football works. Žarko Zečević was general secretary of Partizan for 23 years until he resigned last year, after months of game boycotts, fan demonstrations and negative media coverage. He went to work as director of a Serbian subsidiary of Gazprom. His father, Slavko, a minister of police at one time, sat on the board. Zečević has been accused of laundering money through different Partizan ‘owned’ companies in order to avoid paying federal taxes on income. The Serbian government, who officially owns FK Partizan and its subsidiaries, and whom he has family and business ties with, was and is not getting the money owed to it. Personally, I generally stand against giving any government more money, but when the leader of a publically run social organization is embezzling money that is rightfully owed to said government, that person should be held accountable. The most upsetting part of the entire fiasco is that during this time that Zečević was embezzling and laundering money, many of the club’s staff and even players were going without getting paid.
This kind of behavior however is not only a Partizan problem, Red Star have had their fair share of corruption and fiascos. Back in 2007, police raided the offices of Crvena Zvezda administration on reports of corruption within the club. Police went on to arrest the lead team administrator Zoran Damjanovic on account of 15 “murky” player transactions and connections to underworld dealings. Damjanovic and then club president Dragan Stojkovic would soon after resign, but these actions would continue to drive the club closer to bankruptcy.
Youth=Future
Serbia is, potentially, one of the up and coming sides in world football, and have a potentially bright future ahead of them following the success of the national U-20 team at the 2015 World Cup in New Zealand. With the wonderkids from Partizan and Crvena Zvezda leaving Serbia to play internationally, there is a desire to continue to develop world-class talent and send them abroad. Partizan ranks 2nd in Europe for the most academy trained players, playing internationally, right behind the legendary Ajax academy and ahead of F.C. Barcelona’s La Masia. There is hope, however bleak that domestic Serbian football will once again find success, in the wake of its outstanding academy graduates.
So much will ride on the willingness of the Serbian government to enact new laws, and to sell or privatize clubs that are involved in shady business practices. Honestly, I believe that these kinds of underground dealings made by the two largest clubs in the country are primarily due to the bureaucratic nightmare that the Serbian government seems to find itself in, combined with the crony politics that seem to devour the national political scene.
Overall, the outlook for the future of the two clubs is not the brightest, however with the growing numbers of up and coming talent there could be some light at the end of the tunnel for Serbian football. Politically, until the clubs are completely separated from any facet of government there will be some shadows cast over legitimacy of business dealings and social trust in the clubs.
Much of the infrastructure is still left over from the Yugoslav era when it comes to Serbia’s football, and its politics. Not very much of it is efficient or sustainable for any lengthy period of time. The lack of care that has been taken in regards to the corruption and violent tendency of clubs, ultras and even regular fans, makes one wonder if Serbian football will have a future at all. Despite this, the movements by Gazprom and other millionaire owners who see Serbia as a great place to grow raw talent, might just drop in at the right time. Without a major influx of cash, and stabilizing businessmen to lead the way, I believe Serbian football will either die, or degrade into something so unrecognizable that the World and Europe’s governing bodies will cease to licence the nation for competition.
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