"Serbia is a land of sporting heroes, not of vandals and hooligans," Snezana Markovic-Samardzic, the sports minister, said. From Monica Seles to Novak Djokovic, there have been ample heroes. But the hooligans have been a fixture of Serbian life for decades, often used and abused by ruthless politicians, warlords and organised crime.
On Sunday many of the same hooligans turned the streets of Belgrade into a battlefield, ostensibly protesting against a Gay Pride march through the city, but running rings around the heavy police presence. The street violence was orchestrated politically by ultra-nationalist and neo‑fascist leaders. The rioters attacked the offices of the party of the president, Boris Tadic, and the offices of other political enemies, state television company and relatively liberal media outlets. They were egged on by extreme-right politicians who blamed the violence on the government for allowing a gay parade.
Extreme, aggressive nationalism was also on display in the stands at Genoa. Serbian fans burned Albanian flags and shouted slogans such as "kill a Shiptar" (a pejorative term for an Albanian). The message was one of recalcitrant and violent nationalism – that Serbia is keeping the breakaway Albanian province of Kosovo which declared independence two years ago.
Government officials see the two outbreaks of rioting as linked and distinctly political. "After these two incidents, I can say that these hooligans are a part of organised groups with financial support," Slobodan Homen, a justice ministry official, said. "Opposition parties are not directly involved but are exploiting the situation."
Football riots are common in former Yugoslavia, recently in Bosnia and Croatia and particularly in Belgrade where the big rivalry between Red Star and Partizan routinely results in tribal warring. High unemployment, no future prospects, 20 years of war, state collapse, Nato bombing and criminalisation all mean that bad behaviour from Belgrade youth is hardly surprising. But the hooligan problem has always also been a political toy.
The delije – or hardmen – that are the Red Star supporters have played several roles over the past 20 years: from brutal foot soldiers for militia leaders in the ethnic cleansing campaigns in Bosnia and Croatia; to revolutionary masses in the throng that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic as president in 2000; to street fighters in the neo-fascist campaign against the government, against the rest of Europe, against the US.
An early signal of the nationalist turmoil tearing old Yugoslavia apart came in 1990, when the Red Star hardmen fought Dinamo Zagreb's hooligans at the Maksimir in the Croatian capital. The wars started a year later.
The Belgrade thugs were led by Zeljko Raznatovic, aka Arkan, the gangland boss and warlord who later used the Red Star fan base to recruit his Tigers militia to carry out atrocities in Croatia and Bosnia. He was assassinated in 2000, having been indicted for crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The rioting in Belgrade on Sunday was explicitly political. Extremist political leaders were arrested and police say they recovered detailed riot plans from the detainees. Officials also believe the estimated 3,000 that went to Genoa were acting on orders from leaders in Belgrade. "We had reports this was going to happen," Tomislav Karadzic, the head of the Serbian Football Association, said. "These kids are just doing what they're told. Those issuing the orders are in Belgrade."
That football hooliganism in Serbia is as much a political as a social problem is clear from current attempts by prosecutors to have 14 fan organisations banned. They bear names such as Brain Damage, the Ultras, Alcatraz and the Belgrade Boys. They should be outlawed because of "activity aimed at the violent destruction of the constitutional order, violation of human and minority rights, and inciting racial, national and religious hatred", said the prosecutor's office.
Savo Milosevic, the former Aston Villa striker and Serbia's most-capped player, also saw a political agenda behind the Genoa carnage. "It's one of the blackest days in the history of Serbian football. Some people are again using football for certain other aims."
