Bosnia and Herzegovinia: Unprecedented events in ultras world

Before we delve into specific events, we first need to explain the rivalry between Zrinjski and Velež.

Both clubs are from the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a city of 100,000 inhabitants divided into two parts - the eastern part inhabited by Bosniaks (Velež supporters) and the western part inhabited by Croats (Zrinjski supporters). Therefore, this is not just a typical city football rivalry but a rivalry between two nations of different faiths (Muslims and Catholics).

In the past, there have been numerous conflicts, banner thefts, but what has unfolded there in the last month is unprecedented in the entire ultras world.

It all began on April 8th when the Red Army (Velež supporters) stole 9 flags from the Ultras (Zrinjski supporters). Specifically, they took all the flags the Ultras had that day at the match against Zvijezda 09.

The flags were taken when, disguised as painters, Velež supporters entered the apartment building of the guy guarding the Ultras' banners (his friends drove him with car to the building after the match). They waited for him outside the entrance to his flat, beat him up, and took everything.

Not even a month passed before the Ultras retaliated and took almost all the flags from the Red Army, from the current main banner to some older ones. Around 50 flags and banners were taken!

After the Velež and Posušje match, on the Friday night into Saturday, masked Ultras members broke into the private house where all banners were stored;  handcuffed guy inside and took all they found. Allegedly, the Red Army rented that house from Booking.com  to keep banners and flags safe...

Red Army posted video from the surveillance camera:

We want to emphasize that both Mostar methods of stealing banners are disgraceful and not ultra.

Break-ins into fans' homes, clubs, museums, stadiums when they are empty, waiting at the home entrance should not be part of the ultras world and is against the ultras code.

That ultras code also says that a group losing it's main banner should disband, but judging by the methods the Mostar groups used to take banners, which are far from any ultras code, we doubt the same will be respected in that regard.

We just hope it will stop on this two actions and not escalate even more because who know what can happen next.