UEFA Fines Red Star 99,500 Euros, Suspends North Stand
UEFA has fined Red Star Belgrade 99,500 euros over the Viktoria Plzen match and handed a suspended closure to the north stand at Rajko Mitic, ahead of the return leg in Czechia.
The north stand at Rajko Mitic stadium was burning with flares on the evening of August 20, as the Delije sent off the first leg of the Europa League playoff against Viktoria Plzen. Smoke rose to the floodlights, a choreographed display covered the entire section, and on the pitch Red Star did the job in convincing fashion, with goals from Mirko Ivanic and Aleksandar Katai sealing a 3:0 win. The celebration in the stands lasted until the final minute of the match. Six days later, that same display is why the club is reaching for its wallet again.
On August 26, UEFA announced a new disciplinary decision against Red Star, and the bill comes to 99,500 euros. This is already the second fine European football’s governing body has handed the Belgrade club in under a month, after one of 135,500 euros arrived just days earlier over the organization of the match against Hapoel Beer Sheva. The combined total of fines in this European season alone has now climbed to 235,000 euros, and the season has barely started.
What exactly Red Star is paying for
The single largest item, 50,000 euros, is for a message UEFA judged inappropriate for a sporting event. The club is paying a further 20,000 euros because fans stood in the aisles and stairways of the stands instead of at their seats, and another 20,000 euros over racist and discriminatory conduct from the stands. For setting off pyrotechnics, an item that recurs at nearly every European away trip and home match the Delije attend, the fine stands at 9,500 euros.
Along with the money came a measure that stings more than the invoice. UEFA ordered a suspended partial closure of the north stand at Rajko Mitic. Suspended means the stand stays open to fans for now, but the penalty is automatically triggered if the same offense is repeated within the next two years. For the north stand, which already tends to carry the heaviest load whenever UEFA hands out fines, this is a clear warning that the next incident will not be suspended. The stand will actually sit empty.
Return leg in Plzen, a three-goal cushion
All of this arrives just as the club would most like the conversation to be about the pitch alone. The return leg against Viktoria Plzen is played on August 27 at 7 p.m. in Plzen, and Red Star travels to Czechia with a three-goal cushion after the convincing 3:0 at the Marakana. A place in the Europa League group stage is, realistically, largely secured, which makes the return leg more of a formality than genuine drama.
The club’s leadership nonetheless now has two parallel jobs. One is sporting: get through the return leg without surprises and confirm progression. The other is administrative, and it keeps getting more expensive: two fines in a month and over 235,000 euros in costs landing directly on the club’s budget in a season that is still only in its second qualifying round. For comparison, the first fine of 135,500 euros came over organizational failings around the Hapoel Beer Sheva match, while this second one is purely a consequence of what happened in the stands, meaning UEFA is now looking at two separate problems at the same club within the same month.
The pattern repeating from fine to fine stays the same. Pyrotechnics, blocked aisles, messages from the stands: these are all items UEFA logs systematically, and the fine grows with every repeat offense. The suspended closure of the north stand is not a formality but a signal that the disciplinary committee’s patience is running out. If anything similar happens again at the next European match at the Marakana, the north stand will not get another suspended sentence. It will be empty.
