Football in Serbia

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Football in Serbia
Fk Red Star stadium.jpg
Home stadium of club Red Star Belgrade
CountrySerbia
Governing body Football Association of Serbia
National team(s) Serbia national football team
First played1896
Registered players120,194
Clubs2,770
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions

Football is the most popular sport in Serbia . The Football Association of Serbia (FSS) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in the country, both professional and amateur. The association organizes the professional Serbian Superliga (top tier) and is responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's, and youth national football teams in Serbia. The association also organizes the Serbian First League (second) and Serbian League (third), operating the top 3 leagues.

Contents

The FSS is also responsible for organizing the Serbian Cup, the country's league cup competition. It has been played from the end of the 19th century and there were a number of very successful Serbian football players and coaches throughout history.

One of Serbia's top football clubs Red Star Belgrade has won the prestigious European Champions Cup in 1991 and has also won the Intercontinental Cup the same year. [1] Its local rival Partizan Belgrade was the first Southeast and Eastern European football club to reach the European Champions Cup final, when it did so in 1966. The most successful and popular teams are Red Star and Partizan from Belgrade as well as Vojvodina from Novi Sad. An important role also played OFK Belgrade and Radnički Niš in the history of the Serbian football

History

Kingdom of Serbia

Football first came to Serbia in the spring of 1896 when a Jewish student, Hugo Buli, after he had returned from his studies in Germany, brought the first football from Berlin to Belgrade. He brought the ball to his friends from the Belgrade gymnastics society Soko, and founded the first football section in Southeast Europe on 12 May. [2]

The inaugural meeting of the First Serbian Football Society (Prvo srpsko društvo za igranje loptom) took place on 1 May 1899, at the restaurant Trgovačka kafana, at initiative of Hugo Buli, and with support of Andra Nikolić, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Serbia. Feti Bey, the Turkish consul in Belgrade, was elected as President, and the lawyer Mihailo Živadinović as the Vice-President. In spring 1899, the first football field was built in the Topčider neighbourhood of Belgrade, and the first match was played in May that year between two teams of the members of the football society. [2]

Most of the first Serbian football clubs were multi-sports societies which included football sections. The first football club was founded in Subotica in 1898, the Szabadkai Sport Egylet (Sport Club Szabad), among the then fans better known simply as "Sport", within which was formed a football section in 1898 on the initiative of player and enthusiast Zoltán Wagner. [3] Another club was founded in Subotica on May 3, 1901, the Sports Athletic Club Bačka. More than two years later, on 14 September 1903, the football club Šumadija was founded in Kragujevac. The Subotica clubs were older, but at the time of the foundation of Sport and Bačka, the city of Subotica was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Kragujevac was on the territory of the then kingdom of Serbia. Being still active, Bačka is the oldest club in nowadays Serbia. Just following the foundation of Šumadija, Soko was founded in Belgrade, and thus became the first football club from the capital city. Since then several other clubs were formed such as Srpski mač in 1906, BSK in 1911 and SK Velika Srbija (later renamed to SK Jugoslavija) in 1913. [4]

In spring 1914, the Serbian Olympic Committee organised the first ever trophy to be played among the best football clubs of the Kingdom of Serbia. It was played in a single-round robin system, and in the final held in Belgrade it was won by Velika Srbija. [5] This seemed to be a promising start of an organised football tournament to be held regularly, however later that same year the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war against Serbia in what will be the beginning of the First World War and the halt of all recreational and sports activities in Serbia.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

At the end of the First World War the boundaries in the region were changed and the Serbian state was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later in 1929 renamed into Kingdom of Yugoslavia. [6] The Yugoslav Football Association (Jugoslovenski nogometni savez) was founded at a meeting in Zagreb, on 18 April 1919. The founding assembly was presided Danilo Stojanović, popularly known as Čika Dača, important because he was the founder of several football clubs such as Šumadija, BSK and others.

In 1919 the Belgrade Football Subassociation formed the first league tournament that started being held regularly since its inaugural season in 1919–20. The first Yugoslav state championship was launched in 1923. The championships were played until 1940, and in this period the best Serbian clubs won seven state championship titles: BSK five and SK Jugoslavija two. The interruption of the championship occurred due to disagreements between the sub-associations, which culminated in 1929 when the YFA Assembly was dissolved. The differences were resolved in February 1930, after three months of crisis. An extraordinary Assembly was convened, and it took place in Zagreb on 16 May 1930. It was voted that the association's headquarters be moved to the state capital, Belgrade, and that the name of the association would be changed into Yugoslav Football Association (Fudbalski savez Jugoslavije). BSK, along with HŠK Građanski, dominated the state scene until the beginning of World War II.

This period was marked by the mass popularization of football. The national league was dominated by clubs from Belgrade and Zagreb, but within Belgrade major rivalry was created between BSK and Jugoslavija (Reds and Blues respectively) creating what will be the Eternal derby of that period. The rivalry expanded throughout the country, more intensely in Serb populated areas but in others as well, dividing citizens between Reds and Blues. Best league players became real media stars, and some became real heartbreakers among the female population, as was Bane Sekulić. [7]

The year of 1935 marked the professionalization of football in Yugoslavia, with the replacement of amateur status to the professional one, and the introduction of contracts for players. [8]

On the assembly of the Yugoslav Football Association held on October 1, 1939, a decision was made to rename the FA into Serbian Football Association, after earlier that year the FA's of Croatia and Slovenia were formed, and the delegates of Ljubljana, Osijek, Split and Zagreb subassociations decided to abandon the Yugoslav Football Association. [9]

Socialist Yugoslavia

The end of the war was the beginning of the reconstruction, and the devastated football grounds and stadiums, as well as the football clubs needed to be restored. [10] On 25 February 1945, the football club Metalac was founded, later its name was changed into BSK, and then into OFK Beograd, as successor to the tradition of the pre-war Beogradski Sport Klub (BSK). The Red Star Belgrade was formed on 4 March 1945, and Partizan Belgrade on 4 October of the same year. Some clubs were disbanded by the new socialist authorities, many on the ideological basis, for being considered too cosmopolitan and representative of the abolished monarchy, such as Jugoslavija or Jedinstvo Beograd, and some had simply disappeared due to man loss and long inactivity during the war. Some clubs were initially disbanded but shortly after, restored, the BASK case being the most evident, while a few top league clubs had continued their activity, as Vojvodina Novi Sad, RFK Novi Sad, Mačva Šabac and Radnički Kragujevac.

Contemporary period

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and the separation of Montenegro, on 26 June 2006, the Football Association of Serbia was admitted to the membership of FIFA and UEFA, as legal successor to all the previous national associations whose part it was. By this the world and European federations have acknowledged the continuity of football in the territory of Serbia, and the decisive role of Serbia in creating the history of the game in Western Balkans since the end of the 19th century. In recent years, many top Serbian players such as Dejan Stanković, Nemanja Vidić and Branislav Ivanović have gone on to forge successful careers in top European leagues. The U-21 team were runners-up at the 2007 UEFA Under-21 Championship having lost to the Netherlands in the final. As well, Serbia won the U-20 World Cup in 2015 in New Zealand.

Competitions

The governing body of football in Serbia is the Football Association of Serbia. It oversees the organization of:

Note: the aforementioned competitions are for men if not stated differently. Women's football exists but is much less developed or popular.

Teams

By far the two most popular clubs in the country are Partizan and Crvena zvezda, both from Belgrade.

Player of the Year

The Serbian Footballer of the Year award is an annual award given from the Football Association of Serbia to the best player of the year.

Football stadiums in Serbia

Stadiums with a capacity of 20,000 or higher are included.

ImageStadiumSeating capacityCityHome teamNotes
Fk Red Star stadium.jpg Rajko Mitić Stadium 55,568 [11] Belgrade Crvena Zvezda UEFA Category 4 stadium
Panoramic of Partizan Stadium.png Partizan Stadium 29,775 [12] Belgrade Partizan Belgrade UEFA Category 3 stadium

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yugoslav Cup</span> Football tournament

The Yugoslav Cup, officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup (Serbian: Куп краља Александра; Croatian: Kup kralja Aleksandra, and between 1947 and 1991 as the Marshal Tito Cup, was one of two major football competitions in Yugoslavia, the other one being the Yugoslav League Championship. The Yugoslav Cup took place after the league championships when every competitive league in Yugoslavia had finished, in order to determine which teams are ranked as their corresponding seeds. The Marshal Tito Cup trophy was based on a design by Branko Šotra.

The 1923 National Championship held in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was the first nationwide domestic football competition. At this point there was no league championship in the modern sense as the competition was held in a single-legged cup format, with participating clubs qualifying via regional playoffs organised by the existing 6 regional football subfederations.

The 1925 National Championship was the second edition of the annual football competition in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

The 1927 National Championship was the first year in which the championship was played in a league system, with Hajduk Split being the first national league champion. Newcomer BSK Beograd replaced Jugoslavija Beograd as Serbia's top-performing club, this was due to half of the Jugoslavija players switching clubs to play for BSK. Hajduk and second-place club BSK entered the 1927 Mitropa Cup.

The 1929 National Championship was won by Hajduk Split.

The 1930 National Championship had the number of teams participating raised to six. The champion, Concordia Zagreb, was a newly formed team consisting of previous HAŠK players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FK BASK</span> Association football club in Serbia

FK BASK TEK is a football club from Savski Venac, Belgrade, Serbia. It is one of the oldest clubs in Serbia. The club currently competes in the Serbian League Belgrade. BASK are the initials of Beogradski akademski sportski klub.

FK Šumadija 1903 is a football club in Kragujevac, Serbia. In 2009 was briefly merged with FK Radnički from Kragujevac and formed a new club named FK Šumadija Radnički 1923, but continued with the competition since 2010. The club currently competes in the Morava Zone League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SK Jugoslavija</span> Football club

Sportski klub Jugoslavija, commonly known as Jugoslavija, was a Serbian football club based in Belgrade. It was originally formed as SK Velika Srbija in 1913 and changed its name to SK Jugoslavija in 1919. They were among the most popular Serbian and Yugoslav clubs, and they were nicknamed as "Crveni" because of their red shirts, in opposition to their greatest rivals BSK, who wore blue and were known as "Plavi". Until 1941 the sports society Jugoslavija, beside football, also included sections for athletics, cycling, winter sports, basketball, boxing, wrestling, swimming, and table tennis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eternal derby (Serbia)</span> Local derby in Belgrade

The Eternal derby, also called the Derby of Southeast Europe and Belgrade derby, is the local derby in Belgrade, capital of Serbia, between fierce city rivals Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade, two of the most popular and most successful clubs in Serbia, although the derby has caused division throughout the whole of Serbia. It has been described as "one of European football's most bitter rivalries".

Franjo Rupnik was a Croatian football player.

The 1928 National Championship proclaimed Gradanski Zagreb once again as the reigning champions, with Hajduk and BSK following closely behind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Football in Yugoslavia</span>

Football in Yugoslavia had different levels of historical development depending on the geographical regions. Following the extreme popularity of the sport in Central Europe, it soon became the most popular sport in the territories of Yugoslavia as well.

SK Jedinstvo Beograd was a Serbian football club based in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The Belgrade Football Subassociation, commonly known by its initials, BLP was one of the regional football governing bodies under the tutorial of the Football Association of Yugoslavia. It was formed on 12 March 1920, and included the clubs from the geographical territories of Vojvodina, Central Serbia, Old Serbia (Kosovo) and South Serbia (Macedonia). The increase of number of clubs made that progressively other subassociations become formed by separating them from Belgrade's one. By 1932 its territory included beside Belgrade metropolitan area only the districts of Kolubara, Braničevo, Podunavlje and Jasenica-Kosmaj.

The Kragujevac Football Subassociation was one of the regional football governing bodies under the tutorial of the Football Association of Yugoslavia. It was formed on 20 December 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Károly Nemes</span> Hungarian footballer and coach

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alois Machek</span> Czech footballer and coach

Alois Machek was a Czech football player and coach. Considered by Czech historiographers as one of the best Czech players prior First World War, he was responsible for the popularization of football in Serbia and Yugoslavia during the first two decades of the 20th century.

References

  1. ↑ Goldblatt, David (30 August 2007). The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN   9780141911540 . Retrieved 13 April 2018– via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 Fudbal u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Milorad Sijić, pg. 3
  3. ↑ Lisica, Admir. "Fudbalski misionari doveli igru na Balkan prije 120 godina". balkans.aljazeera.net (in Bosnian). Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  4. ↑ Fudbal u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Milorad Sijić, pg. 4
  5. ↑ "Srbislav Todorović: "Football in Serbia 1896 - 1918", pg. 60" (in Serbian). Ofkbeograd.net. Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  6. ↑ "The disintegration of Yugoslavia and football". University of Iowa. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  7. ↑ Fudbal u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Milorad Sijić, pag. 6
  8. ↑ Fudbal u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Milorad Sijić, pag. 18
  9. ↑ Fudbal u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Milorad Sijić, pags. 25 and 26
  10. ↑ "The disintegration of Yugoslavia and football". University of Iowa . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  11. ↑ "Dom Crvene zvezde". crvenazvezdafk.com. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  12. ↑ "STADIUM". partizan.rs. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
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