Partizan Vs. Red Star: Serbia's Most Intense Sports Rivalry

Red Star’s Marko Arnautovic (left) celebrates his team's second goal during a match on February 22 as Red Star headed for a 3-0 victory over archrivals Partizan.

The match last weekend was the latest in a rivalry regarded as one of the most intense in European football. Games between Belgrade’s Red Star and Partizan teams are known for choreographed, arena-shaking shows of support from the stands as well as sometimes fiery displays of frustration.

Arena seats burn in a section of the Partizan crowd at Red Star's Rajko Mitic Stadium on February 22. The match was suspended for several minutes as firefighters dealt with the blaze.

Geographically, the two sides are the closest of close rivals, with the teams’ home stadiums located just half a kilometer apart in south Belgrade.

Partizan (in striped shirts) playing Spain's Real Madrid in the European Cup Final in Belgium in 1966, a match the Yugoslavian team lost 2-1.

Partizan and Red Star were both formed in the final year of World War II. Partizan was founded by the Yugoslav military, while Red Star was established by a communist youth organization and cultivated an identity as a "people's club."

Partizan’s Ivica Ilijev weaves through Red Star players during a match in April 2002 that ended in a 3-0 win for Red Star.

The rivalry between Red Star and Partizan is known as the “eternal derby” with the two teams consistently dominating Serbia’s SuperLiga, the highest football league in the country.

Partizan coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic is seen after clashes broke out during an October 2000 football match with Red Star.

While the rivalry today has little overt political or ethnic dimensions, their matches are known for creating some of the most intense stadium experiences in football, led by large contingents of hardcore fans, or “ultras.”

Partizan fans light flares during a match against Red Star in March 2012.

Vuk Cvijic, a journalist with Serbian news magazine Radar, told RFE/RL that the main determinant for which team Belgraders support is family legacy. “Some families have grandparents who are Red Star [supporters] some are Partizan,” he says.

Smoke from the stands obscures part of the pitch during a Red Star versus Partizan match in December 2017.

An injured Red Star fan is helped by friends during clashes with riot police ahead of a match against Partizan in April 2015.

The two teams’ supporters have frequently clashed in recent decades and in 1999 the rivalry was forever stained when Partizan fans fired a rocket into the Red Star section of the stadium, killing teenager Aleksandar Radovic.

Riot police in front of Red Star supporters during a match with Partizan in February 2016.

Cvijic says the intense loyalty of the clubs’ fans dates back to the very beginning of each clubs’ history. “Maybe because the [players competed] with so much passion,” he speculates.

Red Star fans holding smoke bombs during a match with Partizan in April 2004.

Today, observers say that for many young Serbian men with little money for travel or other pursuits, electrifying football matches serve as the pinnacle experience to look forward to.

Fires burn in the stands after a Partizan versus Red Star match in April 2009.

Cvijic says the rivalry has become uglier since the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. "There were passionate fans," he says, "but after the match there wasn't fighting, there was some kind of humor over who was the winner and who is the loser." Now, he says, "it's different."