grobari

Grobari (Serbian Cyrillic: Гробари, English: ''Gravediggers'' or ''Undertakers'') are the organized supporters group of the Serbian football club Partizan Belgrade. They are one of two major football fan groups in Serbia. They generally support all clubs within the Partizan multi-sports club, and mostly wear black and white symbols, which are the club's colors.

Today, Grobari consist of three fractions: ''Južna tribina'', and ''Zabranjeni'', with various subgroups form the three larger ones.

The group as a whole traditionally maintains good relations with the Greek PAOK football club supporters '' Gate 4'' as well as with the fans of Russian CSKA Moscow, Italian AC Milan, Romanian Steaua București and Bulgarian CSKA Sofia.

History

First groups of organized Partizan fan supporters began to visit the JNA stadium in the late 1950s. Those were mainly young men from Belgrade, and they occupied southern stands of the stadium. In those times, support was expressed by loud singing as well as polling of referees and opposite team's players.

Partizan's participation in the European Cup final in 1966 attracted much more fans to the stadium, and is considered to be the crucial moment of the organized fans moving to a south stand of the stadium where they are gathering up to this day. Steady group by the Grobari name was formed in 1970. and during the following decade, as well as all over Europe, Grobari started bringing fan equipment to the stadiums such as flares, supporting scarfs, banners and flags (in the late 1970s), which gave a whole new aspect to the sport club supporting.

By the 1980s, Grobari were one of the largest and most organized fan groups in SFR Yugoslavia and began out-marching to all of Partizan's matches across the country and Europe. Because of their expressed hooliganism toward other club's supporters in those times, fans who represented the core of the Grobari firm were often referred to as a "punishment expedition". In 1987, Grobari in Toronto formed a group under the name of Gravediggers Canada 1987.

1999 Split

In 1999, there was a big split when the newly formed fan group named ''Južni Front'' (Southern Front) accused several top members of the ''Grobari 1970'' organization for abusing their privileges, and the club itself for favorising those individuals. ''Grobari 1970'' were actually accused of manipulating with the money given by the club for organizing fan support. Several hundred members of ''Južni Front'' left the traditional south stand and occupied the north stand of the stadium. The split lasted for a few years until 2005, when the fans settled their differences.

In the 1990s, the unique, yet unofficial mascot of mostly all Grobari fan groups was an angry looking bulldog