A football club does not usually need to tell its own fans to behave. Red Star did so in a statement published on 21 October.
“Please support us fairly and sportingly, and do not throw any objects onto the pitch,” the appeal read.
Kick-off against FC Copenhagen at the Rajko Mitić Stadium, the ground Belgrade still calls the Marakana, is at 6:45pm local time today in the Conference League league phase. The visitors travel with their own guidance. Copenhagen have told their supporters to leave scarves and shirts out of sight on the streets around the stadium, following local safety advice reported by Danish broadcaster TV 2.
Delije and the shadow of Arkan
Red Star’s ultras group, the Delije, are not an ordinary fan curve. During the Balkan wars of the 1990s, members were absorbed into Arkan’s Tigers, the paramilitary unit led by Željko Ražnatović. Three decades on, their presence shapes everyday life in Belgrade.
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Tea Sindbæk Andersen, a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen who researches Southeast European history, told TV 2 that the Delije dictate the atmosphere from inside the club itself.
“Red Star is a culture within a culture, where very specific people get to set the agenda through the extremist fans from Delije, and they are quite violent, quite sinister and powerful,” she said.
“There is a quite unpleasant hierarchy and a quite unpleasant organisation behind these groups.”
The Mladic banner at Plzeň
On 27 August, Red Star lost 5-1 after extra time at Viktoria Plzeň in a Europa League playoff second leg. Their travelling supporters chanted Ratko Mladic’s name, performed military-style salutes and held up a banner praising him. Mladic had died at age 84 that same day, serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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UEFA fined Red Star €90,000 for “chants not fit for a sports event” and “racist and/or discriminatory behavior.” The club was banned from selling away-fan tickets for its next UEFA road match, at Lugano in the Conference League, with a second away-ticket ban deferred for a two-year probationary period.
Daily Sabah reported that images from the match were also carried on Red Star’s own social-media channels, drawing further UEFA scrutiny.
A skull fracture, five years ago
Danish clubs know this venue. When FC Midtjylland visited Red Star in 2021, a member of the home club’s own staff was struck by an object thrown by Red Star fans. The intended target, according to TV 2, had been the referee. The staffer suffered a skull fracture, and Red Star goalkeeper Milan Borjan stepped in to stop further damage.
Copenhagen are the next Danish side through those turnstiles, walking into a stadium whose own club has just publicly asked the Delije not to throw anything.
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