Away from the European nights and the chaos of the Eternal Derby, Red Star Belgrade’s Stadion Rajko Mitić presents a humbler, almost eerie experience. With empty seats outnumbering spectators, only the die-hard remain—faithful to a club whose past glories still echo in its crumbling walls. Guirec Munier captures the raw essence of a SuperLiga match against FK IMT, through the lens of history, politics, and street culture.
The name Red Star Belgrade carries weight. For those who remember, the club’s crowning moment came in 1991, lifting the European Cup after a tense penalty shootout against Olympique de Marseille. That team—led by Siniša Mihajlović, Robert Prosinečki, and Dejan Savićević—was shattered in the years that followed, as the Balkans descended into war. Yet the legacy endures. The murals, the graffiti, the red-and-white adorned streets—they tell the story of a club that refuses to fade.
Today, the Marakana, once a fortress, stands mostly empty for domestic games. Against FK IMT, the atmosphere is subdued. No queues, no city-wide anticipation. Only the Delije, Red Star’s infamous ultras, and a splattering of other fans, inject life into the occasion.
Shot on film, photographer Guirec Munier documents a club suspended between its glorious past and a present that struggles to live up to it…
The Red Star Belgrade. This name has a special resonance for me. The 1991 European Cup final is the first football match I remember. The great Olympique de Marseille team which dominated the early 90s against the now iconic outsider. Marseille, led by Jean-Pierre Papin, Chris Waddle and Abedi Pele against the little-known Siniša Mihajlović, Robert Prosinečki and Dejan Savićević. A sinister game punctuated on penalties by Darko Pančev. The tears of an inconsolable Basile Boli at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari. Then, less than a month after this unexpected triumph, the first of the conflicts of the Wars in the Balkans. Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. In one year, the team made up of Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins, Macedonians and a Croatian was shattered and the most talented of them became stars in the biggest European clubs.
34 years later, representations of the Homeric epic of this golden generation and nationalist imagery still cover the decrepit walls of the Marakana, the intimidating den of Zvezda (Red Star). However, Serbia’s most popular club no longer has its former glory on the European scene and is under no illusions about its chances of one day returning to the roof of Europe. But, as legends never die, the Red Star Belgrade still shines.
Usually, the Stadion Rajko Mitić (the official name of Zvezda’s stadium) and its fervour are illustrated by photos of European nights or the Eternal derby against Partizan Belgrade, but what about an average Super Liga Srbij match against neighbours FK IMT? An hour-and-a-half before kickoff, one of the other derbies in the Serbian capital doesn’t seem to be generating much enthusiasm. The streets leading to the stadium aren’t closed to traffic, street vendors selling sunflower and pumpkin seeds are vainly driving away customers, security guards outnumber local fans, and the Delije (Red Star Belgrade’s ultras) shop clearly won’t be making the season’s revenue. But no matter, there’s a unique atmosphere in the air.
Positioned between the riot police, the refreshment bar run by the Delije, and a T-54 tank whose gun is pointed northwest, toward the neighbouring Stadion Partizana and Croatia, I revel in this kind of atmosphere. Infamous for being the spine of Arkan’s Tigers, the elite Serbian volunteer paramilitary unit responsible for numerous war crimes and massacres during the Wars in the Balkans and founded and led by Arkan (made leader of the Delije by Slobodan Milošević in 1989), Delije rules the roost in the Marakana’s North Stand, as well as outside it with the complicity of the Serbian authorities (Aleksandar Vučić, president of Serbia and former Zvezda ultra, facilitated the predominance of hooligans in Serbian political, social, and societal life).
At the stadium entrances, the searches are thorough. No more coins… Once through the turnstile, the void. The corridors are deserted, there’s no queue at the snack bar, and Zvezdan Zvezdanic, Zvezda’s surprising mascot, is moping. Sure, the Srbij Super Liga is ranked 19th in the UEFA coefficient, and Red Star Belgrade are comfortably leading the league, but a club with such popularity and such a legacy in a capital city of almost two million inhabitants should attract far more than 3,500 spectators for this derby against FK IMT.
Thankfully, a few hundred Delije are present and active in their North Stand. Chants, drums, smoke bombs, flags, and banners, their support is constant. Packed to the brim, and even beyond (the club turns a blind eye when the Delije manage to let some of their members in without tickets), on star-studded European nights, one can imagine the frenzy in the North Stand. Welcome to Hellgrade.
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