Beli Orlovi (supporter group)
Beli Orlovi (, 'White Eagles') are the organized supporters of Serbian national sports teams and athletes, particularly the Serbia national football team. Besides football, they also support other Serbian national teams, primarily the basketball, water polo, volleyball, and handball national teams, as well as Serbian tennis players.
They are named after the double-headed white eagle, the national symbol of Serbia found on the state coat of arms and flag. Unlike club supporter groups, this group gathers various factions that unite around the national team.
History and name
Although the formal gathering of fans under the name "Beli Orlovi" began in the modern era around 2005, the name has a long history. According to the Belgrade newspaper Vreme, the name "Beli Orlovi" was used as a fan chant as early as April 1938, when domestic fans used this name to cheer on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia national football team in Belgrade.
In recent history, the group was more massively organized during the period when the independent state of Serbia emerged, and the national football team transitioned from blue to red-blue-white jersey colors. Since 2006, when the Serbia national football team played its first match as an independent state team against the Czech Republic, the national team players officially received the nickname Orlovi (Eagles) or Beli orlovi (White Eagles), after which the fans massively adopted this identity through iconography on the stands.
Organization and membership
Beli Orlovi gathers not only ordinary sports fans but also members of all Serbian organized supporter groups (ultras). At national team matches, mutual rivalries are put aside, and members of groups such as Delije, Grobari, Firmaši, Meraklije, Crveni Đavoli, Marinci, Plava Unija, United Force, and others can be found together in the stands. The Serbian supporter scene is known for pronounced rivalry, but national team matches represent a specific space where these divisions are temporarily erased for national interests. During the most important or high-risk matches, the organization and protection of the united supporter core (the common kop) are mostly taken over by members of the most powerful hooligan groups from the country.
Besides Serbia, Beli Orlovi have members in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina (especially in Republika Srpska). They also have a significant number of supporters in the Serbian diaspora worldwide, particularly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
It is in the diaspora that fans show a high level of organization. A well-known supporter branch is "Beli Orlovi New Jersey" from the US, whose members travel in organized groups to important national team matches on other continents (such as the key match against Portugal in Lisbon in 2021), bringing banners and national flags over 20 meters long. This name is traditionally strongly tied to the Serbian diaspora, so clubs of Serbian emigrants bear the same name. The most famous among them is Serbian White Eagles FC from Toronto, Canada (founded in 1968), for which the legendary Yugoslav footballer Dragoslav Šekularac once played.
Relationship with the Football Association
As the umbrella organization of national fans, Beli Orlovi occasionally came into sharp conflict with the leadership of football institutions over the state of Serbian sports. One of the most famous cases occurred when the fans' association launched a campaign called the "Football Saber of Serbia". At that time, they sent an open letter to the state leadership, including the country's president, the police, and the Olympic Committee, demanding an urgent investigation into the work of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS). The fans demanded investigations into financial malversations, the spending of budget funds during the construction of the House of Football in Stara Pazova, as well as suspicions of match-fixing during the mandate of FSS president Tomislav Karadžić. At the same time, the group provided strong support to the then head coach Vladimir Petrović.
Incidents
The Serbian supporter scene is considered one of the fiercest, and due to political events following the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia and the bombing of FR Yugoslavia, the attitude of some national team fans toward the outside world became further radicalized. Members of Beli Orlovi have therefore occasionally participated in major incidents at international sports events.
One of the better-known incidents occurred in January 2007 in Melbourne, during the Australian Open tennis tournament. A physical altercation took place outside the stadium between Serbian, Croatian, and Greek emigrants, prompting the Australian police to intervene and remove about 150 fans from the sports complex. This event was a continuation of tensions that had previously spilled over from football competitions in Sydney, where clubs founded by local ethnic communities played.
Besides Australia, Serbian hooligans united under the national team flags caused the abandonment of the match against Italy in Genoa in 2010, while in 2014 in Belgrade, they participated in mass riots on the pitch during the match against Albania, which occurred after the incursion of a drone carrying a political message.
See also
- Serbia national football team
- Serbian White Eagles FC
- Sports fan
- Ultras