This evening in Europe, three Serbian clubs had the opportunity to advance in the Europa League and in typical fashion, all three clubs failed to do so. In the case of OFK Beograd and Spartak Zlatibor Subotica, these are relatively smaller sides facing off against stronger opposition. OFK hosted Turkish giants Galatasaray and lost at home 1:5 after drawing in Istanbul 2:2 last week. Spartak traveled to the Ukraine and lost 2:0 to Dnipro D'petrovsk after winning the first leg 2:1 in Subotica.
While the fact that both clubs would have greatly benefited from a further appearance in the tournament, the biggest disappointment comes from Red Star Belgrade, who yet again fails to progress far in a European Competition.
Their weak peformance this year started with a home loss against Slovan Bratislava 1:2 then only managing to muster a 1:1 draw in the Slovak capital. With that, it has now been three years since the "massive" club from Belgrade made a group-stage appearance in either of the two European competitions.
Outside of Russia, Ukraine and if you want to include Turkey, none of the other Eastern European clubs have had much success in Europe. Recently, Levski Sofia and Steaua Bucharest reached the group stage of the Champions League and both had gone far in the Europa League, but other than those two clubs, the list of other success stories is non-existent. This isn't really a discussion on the entire region but more a focus on the Serbian clubs participating in Europe.
The fact that outside of Partizan Belgrade, no club is making a dent in Europe hurts both our domestic league and any real hopes of our national side doing well, both at senior and junior levels.
In order for our Senior national team to see any sort of success, we need our players to play in more important matches. There are only a handful of meaningful domestic matches each season so any real experience these players get is when participating in either competition. Yes, we have plenty of familar names playing on bigger clubs around Europe, unfortunately, these players never develop those talents domestically.
For our league to improve, these squads need to get better in Europe. In order for these clubs to reach Europe, our domestic league needs to improve. Yes, it's a Catch-22 but working on either will improve the other.
Where do the problems start? Is it the lack of proper private ownership with all clubs? Do we require a Balkan League in order to improve the quality on the pitch? Do we need the FSS to inject money into the smaller clubs? Do we need to restructure our Premier League to ensure that bigger cities like Kragujevac and Nis have teams instead of having 6 of the league's 16 clubs playing in the Capital? There are a lot of questions and unfortunately there is no correct answer because all threse options (and others) would do a lot to help.
Money is another important part that will help and it is these European Matches that bring in the most money. Most domestic matches only get about 2-4,000 fans but European matches almost always fill out stadiums. When Partizan fills up their 30,000 seat stadium and when Red Star can get the same or more fans into Marakana, then that's money in their pocket. The more games, the more money. Just imagine how much revenue a club like OFK gets when 15,000 fans fill up their stadium in Karaburma.
If FK Partizan, our only remaining Club playing in Europe can have a successful campaign, then it could help others indirectly. First off, it would improve our quickly dropping UEFA Coefficient, thus allowing us to be drawn against "weaker" clubs and secondly, it would put more pressure on the other clubs within Serbia to play well.
Partizan are by far the strongest and best club in Serbia and should yet again walk away with the League Trophy. The club is showing that it is serious in being a threat both domestically and continentally, so maybe it could be the start of something more. Hopefully, the further Partizan goes, the more it will push the other clubs, and more specifically, Red Star, to play harder and to do just as well.
There are a lot of "if" questions regarding Partizan in Europe and it will be a few weeks before we start seeing answers. It would be incredible if Partizan reach the Champions League group stage, but even if they don't they are still going to partake in the Europa League group stage. We will definitely follow their progress and hopefully other clubs will take notice.
Excellent article Marko, and a great insight into Serbia's unfortunate current domestic soccer situation.
ReplyDeleteFor OFK, we can only wonder "what could have been" if Zvezda and Partizan fans had put their differences aside and helped fill out the stadium to create an awesome atmosphere. I heard that there were only 2,000-3,000 people in attendance; not what one would expect for such a big game.
Spartak has nothing to be ashamed of, considering that they allowed an unlucky first goal at the end of the opening half. They had a solid performance and met expectations overall.
For Zvezda, it is yet another in a long line of recent disappointments. What the team needs above all else is continuity, something Slavoljub Muslin pointed out when asked by the media about the possibility of taking over the squad. Zvezda needs a coach who will guide them through at least 2 seasons and will help build a new generation of players.
Partizan's performance remains to be seen, but anything short of Champions League qualification or a relatively deep run in the Europa League will surely mean yet another hit to Serbia's UEFA club coefficient. Judging by recent statements by Partizan's president regarding their "dominance" of the domestic league, the team may be getting overconfident. I'm a Zvezda fan, but hopefully for Serbian football, this overconfidence does not result in early elimination from continental competitions.
Uros Max