European football's governing body UEFA has sanctioned Red Star Belgrade after the club's traveling supporters honored Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb war criminal, during a recent Conference League fixture.
The incident occurred during Red Star's 5-1 loss to Czech outfit Viktoria Plzeň on 27 August, a match that coincided with the day Mladic died. Supporters of the Serbian club chanted his name, offered salutes in his memory, and displayed a banner glorifying him throughout the game.
Mladic, who commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the 1990s Balkan conflict, was the architect behind the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically killed. His forces also committed numerous other atrocities during the war. He died at age 84 in a United Nations prison hospital in The Hague, where he had been serving a life sentence for genocide. His death was confirmed to the Associated Press by a family member.
In response to the fan behavior, UEFA announced on Friday that Red Star must pay a fine of 90,000 euros, equivalent to roughly £77,000. The penalty covers multiple violations, including improper chanting and conduct deemed racist and discriminatory in nature.
Beyond the financial penalty, UEFA has barred Red Star from selling tickets to its own fans for the team's upcoming away match in European competition, a Conference League clash against Swiss side Lugano. A second travel ban has also been issued but suspended, contingent on the club avoiding further incidents over the next two years.
This is not the first time Red Star Belgrade has run afoul of UEFA's disciplinary code regarding supporter conduct. The club, which won the European Cup in 1991, has previously faced sanctions for racist abuse directed at players of Roma heritage, among other incidents.
Mladic's case remains one of the most significant in international criminal law. In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia formally convicted him and handed down a life sentence, describing his actions during the war as among the most horrific crimes in modern history. During the Srebrenica massacre, his troops rounded up unarmed Muslim men and boys, bound their hands, and executed them in mass shootings that unfolded over several days. Women and girls in the area were subjected to systematic sexual violence during the campaign.
In an effort to conceal the true scale of the killings, the bodies of victims were initially buried in mass graves using bulldozers, only to later be exhumed and relocated in a further attempt to obscure evidence of the massacre from investigators.
Earlier this year, Mladic's legal team had petitioned for his release on humanitarian grounds, arguing that his health had deteriorated to a critical and irreversible state. That request preceded his eventual death at the detention facility in the Netherlands.
The UEFA sanctions against Red Star underscore the ongoing tension surrounding how football clubs and their fanbases in the Balkans continue to grapple with the legacy of the 1990s wars, with displays of nationalist sentiment at matches periodically drawing international scrutiny and punishment from the sport's governing bodies.
Based on reporting from The Independent.