FK Obilić

For the reserve team, see FK Mladi Obilić.

FK Obilić

Full name	Fudbalski klub Obilić
Nickname(s)	Vitezovi (The Knights)
Founded	1924
Ground	Stadion FK Obilić (Capacity: 5,000)
President	Giga Zelenović
League	Second Belgrade League, Dunav division
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Fudbalski klub Obilić (Serbian Cyrillic: Фудбалски клуб Обилић) is a football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. Named after legendary Serbian medieval hero Miloš Obilić, the club currently competes in the Druga beogradska liga - grupa Dunav (two divisions lower than the Belgrade Zone League).

The club's stadium is also named accordingly; to venerate the Serbian knight it is called the Miloš Obilić Stadium with a capacity of about 4,500. The team was founded in 1924 and is recognized as one of the oldest active football clubs in Serbia.

FK Obilić is one of many football clubs from Belgrade that exist in the shadow of two Belgrade football giants, Red Star Belgrade, former European and World Champion and FK Partizan, former European vice-champion.

Despite its long history, Obilić's most notable period occurred during mid-to-late 1990s when it was operated by controversial Serbian former paramilitary and criminal Željko Ražnatović. The club won the FR Yugoslavia national league in the 1997–98 season, which allowed it to compete in Champions League qualifying.

Honours and achievements

National Championships

• First League of FR Yugoslavia:

• Winners (1): 1997–98
• Runners-up (1): 1998–99

National Cups

• Cup of FR Yugoslavia:

• Runners-up (2): 1994–95, 1997–98

FK Obilić in Europe

Season	Competition	Round	Opposition	Score
1995–96	Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying round	Dinamo Batumi	0–1 (H), 2–2 (A)
1998–99	Champions League	First qualifying round	IBV	2–0 (H), 2–1 (A)
		Second qualifying round	Bayern Munich	0–4 (A), 1–1 (H)
	UEFA Cup	First round	Atlético Madrid	0–2 (A), 0–1 (H)
2000–01	Intertoto Cup	First round	Cibalia	1–3 (A), 1–1 (H)
2001–02	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round	Gøta	4–0 (H), 1–1 (A)
		First round	København	0–2 (A), 2–2 (H)
2002–03	Intertoto Cup	First round	Haka	1–2 (H), 1–1 (A)

History

The beginnings

First team, 1924.

One year after it got founded, FK Obilić began playing competitively during the 1925–26 season as part of the Belgrade Football Subassociation (Beogradski loptački podsavez) an organization under the umbrella of Yugoslav Football Association. Belgrade's committee was very well organized and was divided into three tiers. Obilić enjoyed early success and moved to the first tier by the 1928–29 season. Obilić would stay amongst the top having finished second once and third three times. This continued until World War II which dramatically changed the structure of Yugoslav football.

During World War II there was a newly formed informal league that usually consisted of ten clubs, and the competition ran from 1941–1944 under specific wartime circumstances. Obilić's placement in that league was usually 3rd, right behind the famous Belgrade clubs BSK and SK 1913.

Obilić during SFR Yugoslavia

After World War II the name "Obilić" was banned by the communist party which had just taken over Yugoslavia. Considering the name to be "too Serbian", the authorities forced the club into changing it. The new name became FK Čuburac after Čubura, the neighbourhood where the ground was located. The next big event in the club's history occurred in 1952 when FK Šumadija merged into FK Čuburac. Combined they restored the previous name "Obilić" after the government had changed its mind about the name and finally let them use the historic Serbian name.

The club took slow steps to get to higher and higher in the ranks. Starting from 1952, Obilić played in the Second Belgrade Division. In 1972–73 season, Obilić had finally won the Second Belgrade Division and made the jump to the First Belgrade Division. There they stayed until Obilić placed fourth in the Belgrade zone league in 1981–82 to move up the Second League of Yugoslavia. Proving that this result was accurate, the following season saw Obilić win the league and move up the First League of Yugoslavia. This was a huge moment for the club finally leaving the small regional leagues and moving up to more of what European football is known for. After several seasons Obilić earned the right to go to the Third Yugoslav League. Obilić would now get to play teams from all across Yugoslavia. In that third division Obilić would stay until the civil war that tore the former Yugoslavia apart.

After the Yugoslav Wars

After the Yugoslav wars, all phases of life were affected including football. The Football Association of Yugoslavia had lost many clubs. Because of this many clubs moved up the chain. FK Obilić was placed in the Second National League. It took Obilić only two years to make it to the First National League Group B. They started in 1993–94 and started to show that they had potential. The very next season FK Obilić reached the final of the Yugoslav Cup eventually losing to Red Star Belgrade over two legs in the final. With a very stable financial situation and a shining future many people saw that FK Obilić was a sound investment.

The Arkan years

In June 1996, Željko Ražnatović, a Serbian career criminal and paramilitary better known as Arkan took over FK Obilić, which he swiftly turned into a top calibre club. With Arkan now in charge of the club, Obilić finally clawed their way to the top of Yugoslav football and made it to the top flight. They were right there with cross-town powerhouse's Partizan and Red Star. The next season was FK Obilić's inaugural in the top they not only proved that they were a team that deserved to be there but that they were amongst the elite. FK Obilić went on to become the Champions of Yugoslavia in one of the most remarkable seasons ever seen in Yugoslav football. Even more incredible was the fact that it was the first time Obilić was ever in the top division. However this feat unlike most came with great controversy. According to a book by Franklin Foer, How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, Arkan threatened players on opposing teams if they scored against Obilić. This threat was underlined by the thousands of veterans from his army that filled their home ground, chanting threats, and on occasion pointing pistols at opposition players during matches. One player told the British football magazine FourFourTwo that he was locked in a garage when his team played Obilić.

Over the summer 1998, there was a possibility that UEFA would prohibit Obilić from participation in Europe because of its underworld connections. As a result, Arkan stepped away from the position of president and gave his seat to his wife Svetlana Ražnatović (better known by her nickname, "Ceca") on 25 July 1998. Ceca held on to the role for a short period and decided that it wasn't something she was interested in. Ceca then gave the seat away to Žarko Nikolić who held the title for about a year. Ceca then suddenly had a change of heart and on 14 August 2000 became the president of the club once more. Many people have questioned why Ceca wanted to become the president again after clearly showing signs that the team was not a priority to her. Many believe that the death of Arkan earlier in the year had something to do with her decision. Ceca has never publicly stated why she got involved with the club again.

Fall from grace

After Arkan handed the reins over to his wife, Obilić saw a decline in everything. The club that forced Europe to take notice slowly became a distant memory. The team that was beginning to gain support from football fans in Belgrade lost a significant number overnight. The team which seemed to be a great partner suddenly saw almost all of the sponsors leave. The team's results reflected the situation. Many^[who?] felt that Ceca was the source of most of the problems. She often appeared at matches in fur coats and imposed strict monetary punishments on players who performed poorly, as Obilić sank on the rankings table.

When Miljan Miljanić stepped down from his presidential post at the Football Association of Yugoslavia in September 2001, the press jokingly cheered Ceca's election for the post campaigning that they would have the most beautiful president. However, former Red Star player Dragan Stojković, known lovingly by his nickname Piksi, was elected to the post.

Meanwhile Obilić went from Yugoslav champions in 1998 to still top club until 2001–02. This was the last time that Obilić would be considered a top club in Yugoslavia, finishing an impressive fourth place. The next season FK Obilić fell to the status of mediocre and went down to seventh. The next season they were still considered average even though they managed to move up the rankings and get sixth. The 2004–05 season saw Obilić fall outside of the top ten for the first time since its first arrival to the First League. Finally the end of the line Obilić was sent down to the Serbian First League after the 2005–06 season. Obilić finished 15th with only three wins the entire season. After only one year in the second division Obilić has now again been relegated to the Belgrade Group of Srpska Liga (Third Level) with only 6 draws in 38 matches in the 2006–07 season. They finally relegated to Amateur Level with only 2 wins and 4 draws in 30 matches in the 2007–08 season. In the 2008–09 season, Obilić finished on the bottom of the Beogradska Zona league and were relegated into the Beogradska prva liga zone.

Notable former players

This is a list of players with national team appearances^[1]:

Serbia, FRY/SCG, Yugoslavia: Dražen Bolić Saša Ćurčić Nenad Đorđević Nenad Grozdić Dragoslav Jevrić Saša Kovačević Petar Krivokuća Nikola Lazetić Milovan Milović Nenad Mladenović Milan Obradović Predrag Ocokoljić Marko Pantelić Aleksandar Pantić Radovan Radaković Zoran Ranković Predrag Ristović

Dragan Šarac Miroslav Savić Saša Simonović Budimir Vujačić Bojan Zajić Saša Zorić Aleksandar Živković Bratislav Živković Other: Vladan Grujić Stevo Nikolić Vule Trivunović Dragoljub Simonović Antonio Filevski Bojan Brnović Dejan Ognjanović Mirko Raičević

For the list of all former and current players with Wikipedia article, please see Category:FK Obilić players.

References

1. ^ FK Obilić at National-Football-Teams.com

External links

• Club website
• Supporters website