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| Foto: Ultras Avanti |
Blue Union Belgrade, known in Serbian as Plava Unija Beograd, is the principal organised supporters’ group of OFK Beograd. Founded in the spring of 1994, the group is traditionally associated with the South Stand of the Omladinski Stadium in Karaburma and has become an inseparable part of the club’s modern identity.
Although Blue Union has never possessed the numbers of Serbia’s largest supporter movements, its significance cannot be measured by attendance alone. Its reputation was built on independence, loyalty during the club’s most difficult periods, regular away travel and a strong attachment to Belgrade. Members are commonly known as Unionisti, while OFK supporters more generally are often called Ofkovci.
OFK Beograd, BSK and the Identity of Karaburma
The story of Blue Union cannot be separated from the unusual history of OFK Beograd. The club officially traces its tradition to Beogradski Sport Klub, better known as BSK, which was founded on 6 July 1911 and became one of the leading clubs in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. BSK won five national championships before the Second World War and developed a substantial following in the capital. After the war, former BSK figures became involved in the creation of Metalac, which retained the old club’s blue colours. The name BSK was restored in July 1950, while a merger with TSK Šumadija in November 1957 led to the adoption of the name OFK Beograd and the blue-and-white identity known today.
Omladinski Stadium officially opened on 10 August 1957, and BSK played its first match there two weeks later. The club’s attractive football during the following decades produced the nickname Romantičari-the Romantics. Success in domestic competitions and memorable European campaigns made OFK one of the recognised names of Yugoslav football, even if the club was gradually overshadowed in its own city by Red Star and Partizan. This position helped create a distinctive supporter identity. Supporting OFK was not the easiest or most fashionable choice in Belgrade. For many Ofkovci, that was precisely the point.
Blue Thunders and the Beginning of Organised Support
The first substantial modern organised group at Omladinski Stadium was Blue Thunders, founded in 1984. Its appearance marked the beginning of a new era on the terraces of Karaburma, influenced by the development of organised supporter culture across Yugoslavia during the 1980s. Blue Thunders brought together younger supporters who wanted more coordinated chanting, recognisable banners and an organised presence at away matches. The group remained active under that name until 1990, when it became known as Sokolovi, meaning the Falcons.
The change reflected the wider political and social atmosphere in Yugoslavia, where national identity had become increasingly visible in football grounds. However, the wars, international sanctions, economic crisis and general collapse of everyday life placed enormous pressure on supporter groups throughout the region. Sokolovi ceased functioning in 1993. Organised support for OFK did not disappear permanently. A new generation was already preparing to rebuild it.
The Foundation of Blue Union Belgrade
Blue Union Belgrade was founded in the spring of 1994. It was not simply a change of name from Sokolovi, although it inherited part of the experience, mentality and personnel of the earlier movement. It represented a new beginning during one of the most difficult periods in the modern history of Serbia and OFK Beograd.
The name carried a clear message. “Blue” referred to the club’s colours, “Union” expressed the intention to bring all committed OFK supporters together, and “Belgrade” underlined the group’s identification with the entire city. Its best-known slogan, “One team, one city, one name - Belgrade,” summarised that outlook. From its earliest years, Blue Union attempted to distinguish itself from larger and more conventional supporter groups. Its identity was based on originality, urban culture, loyalty to OFK and the belief that the club represented an authentic part of Belgrade that could not be reduced to the city’s two dominant teams.
The Expansion of the 1990s
The period between 1996 and 1998 was especially important for the group. OFK competed in the Yugoslav First League B, and Blue Union followed the team throughout Serbia. Despite playing outside the country’s strongest division, the group expanded and strengthened its internal organisation. The visual style of the early Blue Union was deliberately unpolished. At a time when many groups competed to produce increasingly elaborate banners, Unionisti often used handmade materials of different shapes and sizes. Blue work overalls were worn on some away trips as a reference to the social background of the group, while reversed bomber jackets also became part of its recognisable appearance.
The emphasis was placed on presence rather than spectacle. Away travel, vocal support and the visibility of the group’s name mattered more than creating a perfect image for outsiders. More sophisticated flags, choreographies and merchandise appeared later, but the preference for independence and originality remained central to the group. After the separate A and B divisions were reunited, supporters launched the Plavo-beli informator. Distributed free at the stadium entrances, it combined information about OFK’s matches with news from the supporter group and commentary on problems in domestic football. For its time, it represented an unusual combination of club publication, terrace fanzine and supporter campaign material. In 2004, Blue Union celebrated the tenth anniversary of its own foundation and twenty years of organised support at Omladinski Stadium, connecting its history directly with the appearance of Blue Thunders in 1984.
Political Identity and Opposition to Authority
Supporter accounts describe the founding generation of Blue Union as predominantly right-wing but also strongly opposed to the government of Slobodan Milošević. These descriptions belong primarily to the political environment of the 1990s and should not automatically be applied to every later member or subgroup. One of the best-known expressions of that anti-government attitude appeared after FK Milicionar, a club connected to the police establishment, entered the league. During a match at Makiš, OFK supporters displayed the banner “Golom protiv režima” - “A goal against the regime.”
Blue Union also entered into disputes with OFK’s own management when supporters believed that the club’s identity, stability or future was being threatened. The group’s relationship with the institution has therefore never been based on unconditional approval of directors and officials. Loyalty to OFK was understood as loyalty to the club, its colours, its stadium and its community - not necessarily to those temporarily running it.
The South Stand and the Blue Union Style
Blue Union is historically connected to the South Stand of Omladinski Stadium. The architecture of the ground, with an athletics track separating the terraces from the pitch, has never made it an easy stadium in which to create an intense atmosphere. The group nevertheless developed a recognisable presence through constant chanting, flags, banners and pyrotechnic displays.
The limited size of the active support created a different dynamic from the mass terraces of Red Star and Partizan. Participation depended heavily on a committed core, with every voice and every traveller carrying greater importance. This produced a close-knit culture in which personal relationships, continuity between generations and responsibility for the group mattered greatly.
According to OFK Beograd’s official supporter history, the more recent core has included members who have followed the Union since its foundation as well as the subgroups Blue Blood, Plava Familija and Beogradska Garda. The structure has changed over time, but all operate beneath the wider identity of Blue Union Belgrade.
Omladinski Stadium: The Group’s Central Cause
Omladinski Stadium is more than a venue for Blue Union. It is the physical centre of the group’s identity and the place that connects different generations of OFK supporters. For that reason, the stadium’s long deterioration became one of the most important issues in the group’s history. Parts of the ground were closed over safety concerns, and high-risk fixtures were sometimes moved elsewhere. In 2015, Blue Union refused to provide organised support when OFK played designated home matches at Obilić’s stadium in Vračar. Its message was clear: OFK could only truly be at home in Karaburma.
Supporters organised campaigns, collected thousands of petition signatures and repeatedly demanded a permanent solution. Their position was expressed through the slogan “Omladinski stadion - our only home,” which became far more than a matchday message.
The same principle was demonstrated after OFK won promotion to the Serbian SuperLiga in 2024. Because Omladinski Stadium did not meet the required conditions, the club initially staged home fixtures in Loznica and then in Zaječar, more than 200 kilometres from Belgrade. Blue Union and the Club of Friends of OFK Beograd announced that they would not organise support at these nominal home matches and would instead follow the team away from home. The boycott was not directed against the players. It was a protest against the idea that OFK could be permanently separated from Karaburma and still retain its complete identity.
Relegation, Survival and the Return to the Top Division
OFK Beograd were relegated from the Serbian SuperLiga in 2016 and dropped from the second division only a year later. The club then spent six consecutive seasons in the Serbian League Belgrade, the third level of the national system. For a club with five pre-war championships, major cup victories and memorable European campaigns, this was an extraordinary decline. Attendances were modest, finances were uncertain and the future of the institution itself appeared threatened. Blue Union continued to follow the team through these seasons, when supporting OFK required patience rather than expectation of success.
The formation of the Club of Friends of OFK Beograd in 2018 strengthened the wider campaign to preserve the club. Supporters became involved not only in matchday activities but also in the struggle to prevent OFK from disappearing or losing the identity that had survived repeated political and institutional changes. OFK finally won the Serbian League Belgrade in 2022/23 and immediately followed that success by winning the Serbian First League in 2023/24. Two consecutive promotions returned the Romantičari to the SuperLiga after an eight-year absence.
On 9 April 2026, OFK officially returned to Omladinski Stadium for a league match against Radnik Surdulica, which ended 0-0. Former players took part in the pre-match programme, while supporters marked the occasion with pyrotechnics and a renewed display of the relationship between the club and Karaburma. However, the long-term stadium question should not yet be described as fully resolved. Fixtures at the beginning of the 2026/27 season again listed the Serbian Football Association’s centre in Stara Pazova as the venue for some OFK home matches. The April 2026 return was therefore historic, but the struggle for a permanent and complete return to Omladinski Stadium remained unfinished.
Friendship with Invalidi Voždovac
The longest-established domestic friendship associated with Blue Union is with Invalidi, the organised supporters of FK Voždovac. The relationship developed during the 1996-98 period, when OFK competed in the First League B and Blue Union was establishing its identity across Serbia. The connection grew beyond ordinary mutual respect and became one of the recognised friendships of the Belgrade supporter scene. Although the visibility and organisation of both groups have changed across different periods, their historical relationship remains an important part of Blue Union’s story.
Dynamo Moscow and Anorthosis Famagusta
Blue Union also developed a significant international friendship with supporters of Dynamo Moscow. What began through individual contacts was strengthened by reciprocal visits and a shared blue-and-white identity. The connection eventually became one of the group’s most visible relationships outside Serbia. A further friendship was established with the organised supporters of Anorthosis Famagusta. The first direct contact took place in 2013, when Anorthosis supporters travelled to Belgrade for an OFK cup semi-final. Representatives of Blue Union later visited Cyprus, where the relationship was formally strengthened.
The two supporter cultures recognised several unusual similarities. OFK Beograd and Anorthosis both trace their foundations to 1911, both wear blue and white, and both have principal modern supporter groups founded in 1994. Their histories are also connected to displacement, institutional hardship and long struggles to protect the identity of their clubs. Because Anorthosis supporters also established close relations with Dynamo Moscow, the three sides became associated with the Blue - White Brotherhood. Despite the distance between Belgrade, Moscow and Cyprus, mutual visits, banners and symbolic support have kept the relationship visible.
Rivalries with Rad and Zemun
The most important traditional rivalry for OFK Beograd supporters is with FK Rad and their organised following, United Force. Often described as the “small Belgrade derby,” the fixture represents two distinctive clubs operating outside the dominant Red Star - Partizan division of the capital. The rivalry developed through geography, terrace competition and several emotionally charged matches. Both supporter movements placed great importance on independence and local identity, making meetings between them particularly intense even when the clubs were competing outside the spotlight of the leading division.
During OFK’s years in the Serbian League Belgrade, the rivalry with FK Zemun and the Taurunum Boys became increasingly prominent. Matches in 2021, 2022 and 2023 produced confrontational chanting, heavy police attention and an atmosphere rarely associated with Serbia’s third tier. Relations with Red Star and Partizan supporters have also generally been hostile. However, those encounters have a different character. For Blue Union, the issue is not only the result on the pitch but also the defence of OFK’s place in a city overwhelmingly divided between its two largest clubs. Supporting OFK is therefore an expression of football identity as much as club loyalty - a refusal to accept that every Belgrade supporter must belong to one of the two dominant camps.
Activities Beyond the Stadium
Blue Union’s activities have not been limited to chanting and away travel. The group has participated in environmental, humanitarian and community initiatives connected to Karaburma and Belgrade. One of the best-known examples was the project “Plava Unija za zeleni Beograd” - “Blue Union for a Greener Belgrade.” As part of the campaign “100 saplings for 100 years,” OFK players, staff and supporters planted the first twenty of a planned one hundred trees at Ada Huja in March 2012. The action reflected the group’s attachment to its local surroundings. Karaburma, Ada Huja, the Danube and Omladinski Stadium are not simply background locations in the Blue Union story; they are part of the identity the group attempts to preserve.
Blue Union Belgrade Today
Blue Union occupies an unusual position in Serbian supporter culture. It does not command the country’s largest terrace, nor does it follow a club that regularly competes for national trophies. Its importance comes from endurance, independence and the ability to maintain an organised identity through relegations, institutional crises and years away from the top division. The line connecting Blue Thunders, Sokolovi and Blue Union now represents more than four decades of organised support in Karaburma. Each generation has operated in different circumstances, but the central principles have remained recognisable: loyalty to OFK, attachment to Belgrade, independence from the city’s dominant football powers and defence of Omladinski Stadium.
The return of OFK to the SuperLiga and the official return to Karaburma in April 2026 represented major steps forward. Yet Blue Union’s history shows that league status alone has never defined the group. Its real identity was built during difficult journeys, lower-division matches, stadium campaigns and periods when the future of the club was uncertain. For Blue Union Belgrade, OFK is not merely a team to follow. It is a symbol of Karaburma, an alternative football identity within the Serbian capital and a tradition that its supporters have repeatedly refused to allow to disappear.