FK Partizan
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Fudbalski klub Partizan (Serbian: Фудбалски клуб Партизан, English: Partizan Football Club) is a professional football club based in Belgrade,
Serbia.
It holds records such as playing in the first European Champions' Cup match in 1955[1],
becoming the first Eastern European club to play in the European
Champions' Cup final in 1966, and becoming the first club from
Serbia to take part in the UEFA Champions League group stages. It is a major
part of the Sports Association Partizan. The second division team FK
Teleoptik is also owned by Partizan. According to UEFA, Partizan
has the second-ranking youngster school in Europe,
right after Ajax Amsterdam.[2]
According to a recent poll, FK Partizan is the second most popular
football club in Serbia, with 32.2 percent of the population supporting
the club.[3]
History
Partizan was founded on October 4, 1945, as part of the Yugoslav
Sports Association, and was named after the Partisans, the communist military formation during the World
War II in Yugoslavia. The club is still a member of the same sports
association, which includes 25 clubs in different sports, as well as
the Football Association of Serbia,
but it has complete independence regarding organisation, management,
finances, material goods and facilities.
The club was initially formed under the Yugoslav People's Army, and the
stadium was named Stadion JNA (Stadium of Yugoslav People's Army).
In the early 50s, the club became independent from the Army. The first
international match was played on December 6, 1945, against CSKA Moscow (then known as CDKA).
Partizan participated in the first ever Champions Cup match, that took place on September
3, 1955 in Lisbon
against Sporting CP. The final result was
3–3. Partizan also became the first club from Eastern Europe to have played in a European Cup final against Real Madrid, after eliminating Manchester United in the semifinals.
In more recent years, the club played in the 2003–04 Champions League,
after eliminating Newcastle United in the last
qualifying round. Partizan also played in the round of 16 of the UEFA
Cup in 2004–05.
Partizan's current colors are black and white, after wearing blue and
red for the first four years.
Honours
National Championships 21
- Champion of SFR Yugoslavia (11):
- 1946–47, 1948–49, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1982–83, 1985–86, 1986–87
- Champion of FR
Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro (8):
- Champion of Serbia
(2):
National Cups 11
Records and Highlights
Momčilo Vukotić is Partizan's record-holder
by number of appearances (752 matches). The goal-scoring record-holder
is striker Stjepan Bobek, with 403 goals.
Over 130 Partizan football players were in the Yugoslav national team and
Stjepan Bobek, Branko
Zebec, Zlatko Čajkovski, Fahrudin Jusufi, Milan
Galić, Milutin Šoškić, Slaviša Jokanović and Predrag Mijatović (a former sporting
director of Real Madrid) are among them. Former
Partizan player Savo Milošević played 102 matches for the national
football team, a national record.
One of Partizan's most notable players is Dragan
Mance. He led Partizan in their 1984–85 UEFA Cup second round tie against
English side Queens Park Rangers, one of the
most memorable matches in the club's history. QPR won the first leg 6–2,
but Partizan advanced after a 4–0 return victory. That match was voted
on the 70th position among Top 100 greatest matches in the history of
football, in a poll organized by Eurosport
in September 2009.[4]
Mance died September 3, 1985 in a car crash at the peak of his
popularity. He was only 23 years old at the time.
The "black and whites" are record-holders of the Yugoslav First League, in terms of
points scored during a campaign, with 107 in one year's championship and
are the only unbeaten champion team ever (in the 2004–05 season).
Partizan also won the most national championships since the break-up of
the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, being a champion 10 out of 18 times.
Arguably, Partizan's most exciting match was a double header against Celtic
in 1989. The first tie was held in Mostar
(now Bosnia and Herzegovina) which Partizan won 2–1. The second leg was
held in Scotland
which Celtic won 5–4. Partizan scored in the last minute to qualify
on the away goals rule in front of nearly 50,000 fans. Partizan also
played in a 1966 European Cup final against Real Madrid, after eliminating Manchester United in the semifinals. At
one point, Partizan was 1–0 up, only to lose to the Spaniards 2–1 at the
end.
Some of the highlights from Partizan's recent past include a UEFA Champions League appearance in the 2003–04 season. After
eliminating Newcastle United in the
last qualifying round, Partizan was drawn in a tough group with Real Madrid, FC Porto (actual winner of the UEFA Cup and the eventual winner of the competition) and Olympique de Marseille (eventual runner-up
of the UEFA Cup). The team never lost a home game,
playing 0–0 with Real Madrid, and 1–1 with FC Porto and Olympique de
Marseille while playing some inspired football in the away match in
Madrid. They are the first, and so far the only Serbian team to qualify
for the main draw of this elite European club competition since its
inception in 1992.
In the next season, Partizan reached the round-of-16
in the UEFA Cup, where it was eliminated by CSKA Moscow, the eventual winner of the competition.
In the 2007–08 UEFA Cup qualifying stages,
Partizan was expelled and fined €30,056 due to crowd trouble, after
fighting broke out with opponent fans during their qualifying match
against HŠK Zrinjski Mostar, and after beating
them by an aggregate score of 11–1.[5]
Seasons 2007–08 and 2008–09 will remain as one of the most successful
in club's domestic history. In season 2008–09 the club successfully
defended their league and cup double
from 2007–08 season, for the first time in its history.
On July 21, 2009, Partizan demolished Welsh champions Rhyl,
with a score of 8–0 (12–0 on agg.) This score is their largest ever
winning margin in European competitions.
Rivalry with
Red Star Belgrade
Main article:
Belgrade derby
Partizan's city rival is Red Star Belgrade. The duel is regarded as one of the greatest football rivalries in the
world and the matches between these rivals have been labeled as the
eternal derby (Serbian Latin: večiti derbi, Serbian Cyrillic: вечити дерби).
Given the its widespread touch on the entirety of a major city, it's
dubbed one of, along with the Old Firm, the Rome derby and the Istanbul
derby, the most heated rivalries in European football.[6]
These matches are always greatly anticipated and quite spectacular, but
in recent years the amount of violence and hooliganism made attendance
fall an inevitable consequence. The greatest attendance was about
108,000 spectators.
British Daily Mail in September 2009 has ranked the Partizan – Red
Star derby on the 4th position among 10 greatest football rivalries in
the world.
Supporters
Partizan's supporters, the Grobari (Gravediggers),
were formed in 1970. The nickname itself was given by their biggest
rivals (the Delije
of Red Star Belgrade, referring to the club's mostly
black colors which were similar to the official uniforms of cemetery
undertakers. The other theory is that the name arrives from Partizan's
stadium street name - Humska (Graves). They support all clubs in
the Sports Association Partizan. In 1999, the organized
supporters who traditionally occupy the south stands at the stadium
split into two groups. The newly formed group named Južni Front (South
Front) accused several top members of the Grobari organization for
abusing their privileges, and the club itself for favoring those
individuals. In 2006, they settled their differences and today there are
three major fan groups: Južni Front, Grobari 1970 and Grobari Beograd.
From 2005 until 2007, fan groups boycotted all Partizan matches until sports
director Nenad Bjeković and general secretary Žarko Zečević resigned, which was their main
goal. Bjeković finally resigned in May and Zečević in September 2007. As
a result of their demands being accepted, the Grobari returned to the
stands of Partizan Stadium.
Danny
Dyer featured the Grobari on the Real Football
Factories International show. In the episode he labelled the
Grobari as a group willing to do anything for the respect of the club.
Stadium and Sports
Centre
The club's stadium is now named Stadion FK Partizan, although it was known as Stadion
JNA (Stadium of the Yugoslav People's Army) for most
of its history, and is still sometimes called that. The stadium seated
approximately 55,000 people before UEFA's law of having seats across the
entire stadium. The current capacity is 32,887 people.
The stadium was used from the mid-fifties until 1987 as the final
point of yearly festivities called the Day of Youth. Each year on May
25, the baton of the Relay of Youth was finally passed into the hands of
Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia.
The sports centre Partizan-Teleoptik, also known as "Zemunelo"
(the name being composed to show the resemblance to A.C.
Milan's sports centre, Milanello),
is situated on the surface of almost 10 hectares, in the west part of Zemun, on
the intersection of two major highways and in vicinity of the airport.
Regarding functionality, architectural solutions, modern equipment and
building materials used, this centre is among sports buildings of the
highest value in Europe. At present, it is a training and preparatory
base of all Partizan selections, consisting of around six hundred
sportsmen beginning with the first team, through the 2nd division team
of Teleoptik, down to the youngest categories of the large
Partizan family.
The stadium is expected to be redesigned by Swiss firm Mob Lab. The
new capacity is to be approximately 45,000 seats and will include a very
modern business park filled with hotels and office
buildings. [8]
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