“The pitch itself was no man’s land:” Siege, Željezničar Sarajevo Football Club and the Grbavica Stadium

Abstract

Inspired by microhistory, this essay explores the wartime plight of a football stadium and the multi-ethnic club that called it home as a means of understanding Bosnia and Herzegovina’s descent into conflict, the siege of Sarajevo, and the impact upon civilians. Like the suburb of the same name, Grbavica became part of the frontline during the siege. Deprived of its home, FK Željezničar continued to function, while players, staff, and supporters longed for a return to the shattered ground. At a local level, the organization offers a means of visualizing the development of the Grbavica suburb, from its socialist foundations to its post-Dayton reintegration. In this way, the life of the stadium and those who frequent it map onto the history of Yugoslavia, its dissolution, and the independent republic that emerged in its wake. Moreover, the wartime partition of the stadium, the club, and its supporters’ group – all of which were claimed by actors on both sides of the frontline – were representative of political developments in a state where the ethnic balance was forcibly reengineered. This reconstruction of Grbavica’s war harnesses original photographic evidence, oral history, maps, contemporary journalism, and the transcripts of the Hague Tribunal.

Keywords:

• football
• war
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Yugoslavia
• Sarajevo

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Željko, Hamo, and Lejla of the Maniacs supporters’ group. I am also grateful to Cathie Carmichael, Ivana Maček, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

1. Slavija had been a club for the city’s Serbs (Mills 2013a, 52).

2. These figures are somewhat complicated by the 15.9% who declared a Yugoslav national identity.

3. For more on the proximity of the Police Academy to Grbavica Stadium, see 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2780–2781.

4. The Yugoslav People’s Army assisted many with flights out of the city during this turbulent period (Maček 2009, 90).

5. Borac Banja Luka continued to participate in the Yugoslav league system. Although Banja Luka was located in Bosnian Serb-held territory for the duration of the war, the club relocated to Serbia to fulfill its home fixtures.

6. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2026.

7. Twelve minutes of this footage is available online (“Na današnji dan otvoren Željin dom – stadion Grbavica,” 2013).

8. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2028.

9. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2752.

10. 2004–2009. Case IT-98-29/1. Dragomir Milošević – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 4742.

11. 2004–2009. Case IT-98-29/1. Dragomir Milošević – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/ 2931; Interview (2008). Derry City’s Brandywell Stadium was also utilized by a sniper in 1971 (Cronin 2000, 70).

12. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2816.

13. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2892–2894 and 2900–2901.

14. 2001–2003. Case IT-98-29-T. Stanislav Galić – Interview Transcripts, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://icr.icty.org/. 2892–2894 & 2900–2901. For more on Sarajevo’s Serbs and enforced trench digging, see Judah (2000, 217).

15. The nine discussed were: Fadil Hodžić, Rade Bogdanović, Goran Gutalj, Simo Krunić, Siniša Nikolić, Jasminko Velić, Mario Stanić, Vito Milošević, and Milan Pavlović.