Partizan v Red Star Belgrade: The Eternal Derby

For this blog post, I wanted to get a view into sports outside of the United States. Fortunately, I was able to Interview Luka Hadzic, whose family is originally from Serbia. There have been many stories talking about how seriously the Serbians take their sports as fans, and Luka gave me his own personal stories about attending "The Eternal Derby" of Partizan vs. Red Star Belgrade in one of the most bitter soccer rivalries in sports.

Luka has attended this game a few times, always with his cousin who still lives in Serbia. His cousin is what is known as an "ultra", which takes being a super fan to the next level. These are the people with tattoos dedicated to the team, fully decked out in fan gear detailing the decorated history of the club, and sitting in their own designated section. The way Luka describes it, they dress "how someone looks in riot gear. Not as a police officer, but how someone looks if they were to go and start a riot... like they are wearing hockey masks." Luka was not allowed to sit in the same section as his cousin as they knew he was American and did not have the same passion as they did. Yes, Luka had to sit separately from his own family.

As they entered they were separated on opposite sides of the stadium to prevent any chances of fights breaking out. Of course, fights still would break out, but I'll get into that later. There were officers in full riot gear and well-armed. There were entire sections left open in anticipation of the fans throwing things at each other and fights breaking out. There were so many flares being lit and so much smoke in the air that "you couldn't even tell when the game had started." Truly, this is unlike any event you could get in the United States.

I asked Luka about how it compared to the events he's been to in the United States. He said, "It's hard to compare. it feels like they have a lot more passion. For them winning the big one would be comparable to the birth of their first-born child. It's not like here where you just go to catch a game. Every single one means so much, and they will travel all around the world to watch them." The rivalry is so intense that if you are wearing the jersey, in his case Partizan, you really are like family. To put it into perspective, he said, "if you were to get into a fight but you were a Partizan fan, every other Partizan fan would fight with you and they don't even know you."

If it wasn't obvious, fights are extremely common. Something that I am used to is one or two fans from the opposing fandoms getting into a fight and everyone else trying to break it up. According to Luka, the fights there generally consist of ten to twenty guys all going at each other, with more and more joining in as it continues before it gets broken up. Without going into too much detail about the stories I was told about his cousin's experience in these fights, they are not just throwing punches to the body. Although it is violent, I think it speaks to the passion that these fans feel for their respective teams.

While it may not seem like a sporting event for everyone, if you are looking for a group of people willing to die for their team, look no further than The Derby.