The Srebrenica Memorial Center asked UEFA on Friday to exclude Serbian club Red Star Belgrade after fans and official club channels praised Ratko Mladic.
The institution submitted its formal request following Red Star's 5-1 defeat to Viktoria Plzen in the UEFA Europa League. During the match, fans displayed banners praising Mladic, who died on Thursday, and chanted the name of the former military commander who was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Supporters in the stands held up banners that declared general, great glory and thank you, while simultaneously chanting his name, according to a statement published by the news portal Klix.
The memorial center emphasized that the club went beyond fan misconduct by publishing photographs of Mladic accompanied by commemorative text on its official social media accounts after the match concluded.
Calls for Urgent UEFA Sanctions
In its statement, the Srebrenica Memorial Center stated that a club using its official communication channels to spread messages glorifying a person convicted of genocide cannot attribute that behavior solely to its supporters.
The organization added that the issue is no longer just about fan behavior, but concerns the institutional relationship of Red Star Belgrade with the core values on which European football is built.
The memorial center officially asked UEFA to open urgent disciplinary proceedings against the Serbian club, citing the social media posts as a particularly aggravating factor, and demanded definitive exclusion from European competition.
Precedents and Historical Context
The memorial center noted that UEFA previously handled a similar disciplinary case involving Red Star Belgrade, in which the governing body concluded that glorifying Mladic did not constitute an insulting message toward victims of crimes committed on ethnic and religious grounds.
Ratko Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1990s Bosnian War. He was convicted of genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Muslim civilians were killed.
The Srebrenica Memorial Center is dedicated to honoring and preserving the memory of the victims of the 1995 massacre. UEFA, the administrative body for European association football, oversees major continental tournaments including the UEFA Europa League.
