Milosevic fostered 20-year violence in Serbian football

Sor Soccer Violence led to a dramatic halt in the Euro 2018 qualifying match between Serbia and Italy in Genoa. This form of hooliganism associated with sport has begun more than 20 years ago in Serbia, and such a thing still continues.

Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Serbia, had realized that the fans of Crvena Zvezda Belgrade were very nationalist and very communist and close to the opposition politicians. Along with the head of the security service, he recruited Zeljko Raznatovic Arfin, a criminal killer, to solve that problem.

Within weeks, Arkan unified several different Crvena fan groups and turned them into a sort of paramilitary unit. These so-called Bitifosis committed terrible atrocities in Croatia and Bosnia during the first half of the 1990s by operating under the control of Serbian security services.

After the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, hooligans participated in campaigning against Milosevic and contributed to his fall. But they did not confront the president because they had the European dream, for a liberal and democratic Serbia; they opposed him because they had lost the war.

Shortly after Milosevic's fall in 200, and a few days after the new Serbian democracy, the country's most important football match between Crvena Zvezda and Partizan dealt with brutal beatings between hooligans on both sides.

The next decade increased one generation on both sides that did not remember Tito's Yugoslavia. One party had grown up in the atrocities of the 90s war and was frustrated by the slow improvement in life conditions. The other was raised by parents close to the Milosevic regime. Most lived in the West and learned new languages, but they brought the worst aspects of Western living to their countries.

Both sides are united in hatred of the West, especially for Americans, and also for their neighbours, Albanians, Bosniaks and Croats. Elements of secret services, nationalist political parties and even the ruling coalition thrived in that environment, but the leaders of the most violent groups are often criminals involved in drugs, arms trafficking, and organised prostitution.

These groups have reached high levels of impunity. The Serbian government follows a cautious policy, and the most popular football and basketball clubs are in their hands.

On several different occasions, Crvena Zvezda fans have entered their team's strippers and hit the players. The footballers ' cars were broken, and once a lamp was stuck in the mouth of a policeman. Belgrade's Partizan supporters have killed a visiting fan of the French team Toulouse.

In 2008, hooligans were attacked and damaged by embassies of countries such as America, Germany, and others, while police were only watching them for several hours.

Police and trial have started only a few investigations of these cases, resulting in even fewer trials and sentences. Journalists in Serbia rarely dare to write openly about hooliganism surrounding football and basketball, knowing they cannot rely on state protection for themselves and their families.

♪ Periscope