Beyond Belgrade: The Eternal Derby

Words: Dave Harry

Images: Dave Harry

Fourth minute: Partizan fans release pyro for the first time.

I’m pretty certain I’m the only one sat among the scribes who wrote that down.

Fifth minute: FK Crvena Zvezda take the lead with deflected cross. The hosts celebrate with one of their players mimicking a machine gun being shot at the Partizan fans.

I’m not the only one who noted that.

©Dave Harry. FK Crvena Zvezda vs FK Partizan

I’ve been working on my project to photograph the Football Landscapes of Europe for a decade. I’ve taken pictures at games in each of the fifty-five countries that make-up UEFA. I’ve generally avoided the known grounds and looked to visit places that represent the UEFA continent’s landscape.

In that context a visit to Belgrade for the Eternal Derby between FK Crvena Zvezda and FK Partizan could seem out of kilter, but It wasn’t. You can’t do the UEFA landscape without featuring a Derby and much as I’d fancied photographing Argyle away to Portsmouth for that purpose, I’ve liked Crvena ever since they upset the odds by winning the European Cup in 1991 so Belgrade just felt the best option.

It was.

You can’t apply enough superlatives about the excellent theatre of it; the pyro and the tifo is off the scale. One of Crvena’s firms (the Belgrade Boys) was celebrating its 30th anniversary which meant the teams came out to both pyro and fireworks – all launched by the home fans, no controlled club display in these parts.

Thirtieth minute: Partizan fans hold up a banner of a politician in a noose.

As you do.

Fortieth minute: The Belgrade Boys produce a stunning tifo display with the club crest at the heart of it.

At half-time there was a slight pause but only a slight one, the home fans using the break to display tifo to promote an album release by a band who support them.

Fiftieth minute: The game is delayed by the dense smoke caused by the pyro in one of the Partizan enclosures. You can’t see the pitch at playing level nor the stands.

Note: one of the Partizan enclosures. Their firms are segregated from each other. Its not uncommon and I’ve seen the same in Marseille and at Lokomotiv Moscow, but I’ve never seen away fans segregated from each other before. So much for sticking together on the road.

Not to be outdone, the home fans then produce pyro display after pyro but thankfully not on the scale to delay the game further. It’s getting late enough as it is.

First minute of injury time in the second half: Gomes is sent-off for Partizan.

I didn’t write that down. I missed it. Such is the Eternal derby. Football theatre on the grandest scale with the game being just a component part of the fixture.

You can find Dave on Twitter :@daveharry007

His website is www.floe.pro

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