By Chris Wright
In the not so very distant past Red Star Belgrade were a dark horse to be reckoned with in European football circles, going as far as winning the European Cup in 1991, but the with club currently floundering in mid(ish)-table in the Serbian Super Liga and flirting with destitution, those days, it’s fair to say, are long gone.
Indeed, Red Star are perilously broke, owing millions to their various creditors – with the players recently writing an open letter to anyone concerned expressing their worries over the club’s “alarming” financial state, admitting that wages are regularly paid late, that the training facilities are in disrepair and that the club aren’t even able to supply the players with shampoo in the showers anymore.
These revelations prompted a group of hardcore Red Star ultras to stage a protest, which involved them smashing the windows of nine cars in the players’ carpark and chucking bottles of shampoo into the front seats. That’ll learn ’em!
This all comes a matter of weeks after incensed fans demanded the unworthy Red Star players take off their shirts following a miserable defeat against ninth-place Vozdovac and when the players submissively obliged they were immediately met with a angry barrage of torn-up seats and other various chunks of the stadium.
Still, at least now their hair will be impeccably conditioned, bouncy and full of lustre.