Grobari

Grobari (Serbian Cyrillic: Гробари) are supporters of the Belgrade football club Partizan Belgrade. They are one of three major football fan groups in Serbia. They generally support all clubs within the Partizan Sports Society, and mostly wear black and white symbols, which are the club's colors.

The name

In the Serbian language, the plural term "grobari" refers to individuals who work on or manage a cemetery (gravediggers or undertakers).

The fan group got its nickname in the late 1970s by their biggest rivals (Red Star Belgrade fans), referring to the club's mostly black colors which were similar to gravediggers' official state-issued uniforms in those days (as a response, Grobari began referring to Red Star Belgrade fans as Cigani (Gypsies)). The other theory is that the name arrives from the street on which Partizan's stadium is located - Humska Street (Serbian: Humka - Grave).

History

First groups of organized Partizan fan supporters began to visit the JNA stadium in the late 1950s. Those were mainly young men from Belgrade's municipalities Čukarica, Rakovica, Senjak, and Topčider, and they occupied southern stands of the stadium. In those times, support was expressed by loud singing as well as polling of referees and opposite team's players.

Partizan's participation in the European Cup final in 1966 attracted much more fans to the stadium, and is considered to be the crucial moment of the organized fans moving to a south stand of the stadium where they are gathering up to this day. During the 1970s as well as all over Europe, Grobari started bringing fan equipments to the stadiums such as supporting scarfs, transparents, flags and flame torches (in the late 70's), which gave a whole new aspect to the sport club supporting.

By the 1980s, Grobari were one of the four main fan groups in SFR Yugoslavia and began outmarching to all Partizan's games across the country and Europe. Because of their expressed hooliganism toward other club's supporters in those times, fans who represented the core of the Grobari firm were often referred to as a "punishment expedition". They were best known for their English style of supporting which was mainly based on loud and continuous singing. The 1990s mostly brought nationalism to fan supporting in Yugoslavia, which resulted in some Grobari members participating in the war in Yugoslavia.

Today, Grobari are still supporting Partizan in a number of several thousands in domestic matches, to a sold-out stadium in international competitions.

[edit] Fan groups

In 1999, there was a big split when the newly formed fan group named Južni Front (South Front) accused several top members of the Grobari 1970 organization for abusing their privileges, and the club itself for favorising those individuals. Grobari 1970 were actually accused of manipulating with the money given by the club for organizing fan support. Several hundred members of Južni Front left the traditional south stand and occupied the north stand of the stadium. The split lasted for a few years until 2005, when the fans settled their differences.

Today, Grobari consist of three large groups: Južni Front, Grobari 1970 and Grobari Beograd.

The group as a whole traditionally maintains good relations with the Greek PAOK football club supporters Gate 4, as well as with the fans of Russian CSKA Moscow/ЦСКА Москва section called Yaroslavka.

In the 90's, the unique, yet unofficial mascot of mostly all Grobari fan groups was an angry looking bulldog, but in the last few years it has been a sexton standing next to his shovel.

Boycott (2005 - 2007)

Grobari are shown here during a protest in front of the Partizan stadium in October 2005.

Revolted by Partizan being eliminated from the Champions League qualifications, followed by elimination from the first round of the UEFA cup and from the national cup competition by a third division team, as well as poor results in the domestic league (all at the start of the 2005/06 season), Grobari declared a complete boycott of all Partizan football club matches. Several thousand supporters gathered in September 2005 in front of the club stadium and publicly accused sports director Nenad Bjeković and general secretary Žarko Zečević of tampering with the club's operating budget and transfer policy in order to line their own pockets. On this occasion, they also reminded the public of some previous club officials' machinations.

They demanded club management resignations as a condition for getting back to the stadium stands. Grobari repeated the massive gathering and reitirated their demands in October 2005 in front of the national theatre in downtown Belgrade where Partizan's officials were celebrating the club's 60th year anniversary. Both city football derbies between Red Star and Partizan in the 2005/06 season were played without traditional support toward Partizan from the south stands. Although these matches used to gather up tens of thousands and even more fans to the stadiums, the infamous record was established this season when there was only a few thousand spectators on the Partizan stadium, since the rival fans also agreed to boycott the derby (but for other reasons).

After certain changes in the club board, Grobari decided to stop boycotting. They have returned to the stadium at 26.5.2007. in the match against Mladost Apatin which Partizan have won 7-1, but their main demand, sacking GM Žarko Zečević, still hasn't been completed so the protests against him will continue.