Lešinari are the organised supporters of FK Borac Banja Luka and one of the most recognisable fan groups to emerge from the late Yugoslav terrace movement. Founded in 1987, they developed from a small group displaying an English-language Vultures banner into a movement associated with Borac, Banja Luka and, in the post-war period, Republika Srpska. Their story has passed through several distinct eras. The first generation grew up in the final years of Yugoslavia, the war interrupted organised support and a largely new generation rebuilt the group after 1995. Since 2017, their home has been the North Stand of Banja Luka City Stadium, although the East Stand remains central to their historical identity.
Support Before the Lešinari
FK Borac was founded on 4 July 1926 as Radnički sportski klub Borac, with roots in Banja Luka’s labour movement. The club attracted strong local support long before the appearance of modern ultras, particularly during important promotion campaigns and cup matches.
During the 1970s, the East Stand of the City Stadium gradually became the meeting place for Borac’s most active followers. Support was passionate but largely spontaneous, without the permanent banners, organised away travel and coordinated visual identity that would later define the ultras era. Football was not the only focus. Banja Luka already possessed a wider terrace culture centred on clubs bearing the Borac name, particularly its successful handball team. The earliest members of the future Lešinari generation attended matches across the Borac family rather than limiting themselves to football.
The Appearance of the Vultures Banner
By the mid-1980s, organised supporter culture was expanding rapidly across Yugoslavia. Younger fans in Banja Luka followed developments in Zagreb, Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Rijeka and other cities, where newly formed groups were transforming football terraces through banners, flags, scarves and organised travel. Initial gatherings in Banja Luka reportedly began during 1987, including organised support at a handball match between Borac and Medveščak. Several of the young supporters knew each other from school and shared the ambition of creating a more permanent and recognisable group.
The decisive date was 18 November 1987, when a banner carrying the name Vultures appeared during Borac’s Yugoslav Cup quarter-final against Vojvodina. The first leg was played in Novi Sad and ended in a 3:0 defeat for Borac, but the return match in Banja Luka produced one of the club’s greatest comebacks. Borac won 6:1 on 9 December, with Senad Lupić scoring four times. The English name soon became widely known in its local form, Lešinari. Its deliberately dark and unconventional character distinguished the group from more traditional supporter clubs. Red and blue became the dominant colours, while the vulture developed into the group’s main visual symbol.
The 1988 Yugoslav Cup
The rise of Lešinari coincided almost perfectly with Borac’s extraordinary run through the 1987/88 Yugoslav Cup. After eliminating Osijek, Spartak Subotica, Vojvodina and Priština, the second-division club reached the final against Crvena zvezda. The match was played at the JNA Stadium in Belgrade on 11 May 1988. Thousands travelled from Banja Luka, with the young Vultures group taking its place among the Borac supporters behind its banner.
Senad Lupić scored the only goal in the 60th minute, while goalkeeper Slobodan Karalić saved a penalty from Dragan Stojković. Borac became the first and only second-division club to win the Yugoslav Cup, producing one of the competition’s greatest surprises. More than 30,000 people reportedly welcomed the team back to Banja Luka. The victory gave the new supporter movement an importance it could not have achieved through organisation alone. Lešinari were now connected to the defining moment in the club’s history.
Growth Across Yugoslavia
Borac returned to the Yugoslav First League in 1989, exposing Lešinari to the country’s largest and most established terrace scenes. Their banners appeared in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zrenjanin, Belgrade, Titograd, Priština, Skopje and numerous smaller cities. Large trips to Osijek, Vinkovci, Bačka Palanka, Šabac and Dubrovnik became part of the group’s early mythology. Unlike the leading clubs of Yugoslavia, Borac did not possess a nationwide fanbase. The travelling support was primarily drawn from Banja Luka and the surrounding Krajina region, giving it a particularly strong local character.
Pyrotechnics became one of the group’s identifying features. Smoke bombs, firecrackers and flares were still relatively new in many Yugoslav stadiums, and their use frequently brought Lešinari into conflict with the police and club authorities. The period was also marked by confrontations. The group’s own historical accounts recall incidents involving Red Star’s Delije, Dinamo Zagreb’s Bad Blue Boys, Rijeka’s Armada and Željezničar’s Manijaci. These encounters belong to the violent reality of late Yugoslav football, but descriptions celebrating destroyed property, weapons or the intimidation of entire cities add little historical value and should be treated as terrace mythology rather than achievement.
The Poljud Tragedy
One of the most painful events in the group’s history occurred during the 1990/91 Yugoslav Cup semi-final against Hajduk Split. The first leg was played at Poljud on 3 April 1991, at a time when political tension across Yugoslavia was already entering football stadiums. Borac supporters were positioned on part of the west stand. During the match, members of Torcida broke through the separation and attacked the visiting section. Lešinari have always maintained that stadium stewards failed to intervene quickly enough.
The group’s historical record states that 23-year-old Antonio Kirčanov suffered severe injuries during the attack and died several months later. His name remains an important part of the group’s collective memory. Because detailed independent medical and legal records are not readily available, the precise circumstances should be described carefully rather than sensationalised. Hajduk won both semi-final matches 1:0 and progressed to the final. For Lešinari, however, the tie became remembered primarily for the violence at Poljud and the loss associated with it.
War and the End of the First Generation
An important detail often lost in later accounts is that the pre-war Vultures were not originally a uniformly nationalist group. Members from different ethnic backgrounds stood behind the banner, while individuals involved in the first generation have described the scene as predominantly Yugoslav in outlook. That identity changed as Yugoslavia disintegrated. The outbreak of war severely disrupted everyday life, football and organised support. Many members entered military units, while others left Banja Luka or withdrew from the terrace scene.
Saša Končar, remembered as one of the group’s founders and leading early members, was killed as a volunteer near Zadar in November 1991. Lešinari continue to commemorate him through banners and memorial activities. Borac did not completely stop playing during the war. The club participated in competitions connected to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and staged home fixtures in several Serbian cities. Organised support in Banja Luka, however, largely disappeared, and the original group effectively ceased to function in its previous form.
The Post-War Reconstruction
Lešinari returned publicly at the end of 1995, when Borac faced Rudar Prijedor in the Republic of Srpska Cup final. The second leg, played in Banja Luka on 23 December, ended in a 3:2 victory and became one of the first major post-war gatherings around the club. The rebuilt group was led primarily by younger supporters. Most had received little direct guidance from the pre-war generation, meaning they had to organise banners, travel, chants and internal structures largely by themselves.
This created a significant break between the two periods. The name survived, but the membership, political context and cities visited on away trips had changed. Instead of travelling throughout Yugoslavia, the new generation initially followed Borac to Prijedor, Gradiška, Doboj, Bijeljina, Modriča and other centres in Republika Srpska. Support also returned to the Borik Sports Hall. Some of the strongest post-war atmospheres were created during the European and domestic matches of Borac’s handball and basketball teams. This multi-club identity remains one of the characteristics that separates Lešinari from groups focused exclusively on football.
A New National Competition
Clubs from Republika Srpska entered the unified Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2002/03 season. For the younger Lešinari generation, this created an entirely new away calendar and brought the group into regular contact with fanbases it had not faced since the war. The visit to Brotnjo in Čitluk is remembered within the group’s history as the first post-war crossing of the inter-entity boundary by an organised supporter group. Further trips followed to Široki Brijeg, Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla and Sarajevo.
The political and social conditions of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina inevitably affected these encounters. Matches frequently carried meanings extending beyond the result, while restrictions, police escorts and away-fan bans became common features of travel. During this period, the identity of Lešinari became openly connected to Serbian national symbols, Banja Luka and Republika Srpska. This represented a clear departure from the more mixed and Yugoslav character remembered by members of the original generation. Nationalist chants and displays have also produced criticism and disciplinary attention, making politics an unavoidable part of any honest account of the group.
Rivalries
The strongest modern football rivalry developed with Željezničar. From the late 2000s, Borac and Željezničar regularly competed for league and cup honours, while Banja Luka and Sarajevo provided two of the largest travelling fanbases in the country. Encounters between Lešinari and Manijaci consequently became some of the most closely monitored fixtures in the domestic calendar.
Relations are also hostile with Sarajevo’s Horde Zla and the organised supporters of Čelik, Zrinjski, Velež and Široki Brijeg. The intensity of individual rivalries has changed depending on league position, away restrictions and the frequency with which the clubs have met. Historical hostility towards Delije, Bad Blue Boys and Armada belongs mainly to the Yugoslav period. Although memories of those confrontations remain part of the group’s identity, they should not be presented as active rivalries of equal importance today.
Brotherhood with Firma
The most important friendship of Lešinari is with Firma, the organised supporters of Vojvodina Novi Sad. The relationship began during the 1989/90 season, following meetings between supporters around league matches in Novi Sad and Banja Luka. The friendship was interrupted by war and the disappearance of regular competition between the clubs. Later generations restored it, allowing a bond created in Yugoslavia to survive under completely different political and football conditions.
Members of the two groups regularly visit one another and display each other’s banners. Their friendship is not restricted to football. Lešinari and Firma have also gathered around handball and other events involving clubs from the Borac and Vojvodina families. A visible example came in August 2024, when Lešinari joined their Novi Sad friends in Budapest for Vojvodina’s European match against Ferencváros. Such visits show that the relationship remains active rather than existing only as a historical entry on a list of friendships.
From the East Stand to the North
For three decades, the East Stand was the recognised home of Lešinari. It was where the first generation developed, where the main banners were displayed and where numerous anniversaries were celebrated.
In the summer of 2017, the club reached an agreement with the group to move it behind the goal to the North Stand. The decision was connected to plans to commercialise seating on the larger eastern side of the stadium. The move was historically significant. For many members, the East Stand was inseparable from the group’s identity, while the North offered a more compact sector resembling the traditional ends occupied by ultras elsewhere in Europe.
The North Stand has since developed into the visual and vocal centre of Borac’s home support. Large red-and-blue flags, pyrotechnic displays and banners carrying neighbourhood names have helped establish a new identity without removing the importance of the old East. Lešinari are not a completely uniform body. Different generations and neighbourhood-based sections exist within the wider group. One of the most visible is Lešinari Borik, formed in 2006 and named after the Banja Luka district and hall closely connected to the city’s basketball and handball culture.
Community and Remembrance
Although public attention often focuses on incidents and pyrotechnics, the group has also organised charitable campaigns, membership drives and memorial tournaments. These activities provide a more complete picture of its role within Banja Luka. In 2017, Lešinari participated in a major ticket-selling and fundraising campaign for the medical treatment of the young girl Sofija Mićević. The initiative mobilised supporters, local companies and citizens far beyond the regular match-going scene.
Annual tournaments and gatherings commemorate deceased members including Saša Končar, Dejan Dimitrijević Lonac and Duško Savanović. Through these events, the group maintains continuity between generations and preserves the names of members who might otherwise disappear from public memory. The slogan “Ništa nas nije slomilo, ništa nas neće slomiti”, meaning “Nothing has broken us, nothing will break us”, expresses this emphasis on survival. It refers not only to results but also to war, financial crises, relegations, internal changes and the loss of members.
European Away Days
European competition gave a new generation the opportunity to take the Lešinari banner beyond the former Yugoslavia. Supporters travelled for matches against Lausanne, Maccabi Haifa and later opponents across Austria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia and Bulgaria. Trips to Vienna, Budapest, Thessaloniki and Dublin became important modern reference points. They also offered rare opportunities for the group to measure its organisation and travelling numbers outside the restricted environment of domestic football.
Borac’s extended European campaign during the 2024/25 season brought matches against PAOK, Ferencváros, APOEL, Shamrock Rovers, Olimpija Ljubljana and Rapid Wien. The North Stand also hosted several major European nights, introducing a wider audience to the red-and-blue terrace culture of Banja Luka. In July 2026, Lešinari again travelled in significant numbers for the Champions League qualifying return against Levski Sofia. The result on the pitch was disappointing, but the journey demonstrated that organised away support remained central to the group nearly four decades after its foundation.
One Hundred Years of Borac
Borac celebrated its centenary on 4 July 2026. Lešinari played a central role in the celebrations, organising a gathering at the City Stadium followed by a procession towards Trg Krajine. At midnight, pyrotechnics and fireworks illuminated different parts of Banja Luka in red and blue. The event was more than an anniversary display. It demonstrated how deeply Borac had become embedded in the visual and emotional identity of the city. For Lešinari, the centenary also created a connection between generations who had experienced Borac under entirely different conditions. Some remembered the old East Stand and Yugoslav away trains, while younger supporters knew the North Stand and European qualifying trips.
The Continuing Story of Lešinari
The history of Lešinari is not a simple, uninterrupted tale. The group formed in Yugoslavia, almost disappeared during the war, returned with a different generation and developed a new political identity in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its story contains major away trips, memorable displays and unwavering support, but also violence, controversy and moments that require careful and neutral treatment. Removing exaggerated claims does not weaken the article. It makes the achievements, losses and transformations that can be verified considerably more powerful. From the Vultures banner in 1987 and the Yugoslav Cup final in 1988 to the modern North Stand and Borac’s centenary in 2026, Lešinari have remained one of Banja Luka’s most visible collective identities. Groups, leaders and generations have changed, but the red-and-blue presence behind the name has endured.