BECAUSE OF PRAISING RATKO MLADIĆ: Srebrenica Memorial Center calls on UEFA to disqualify Red Star!

The Srebrenica Memorial Center has called on UEFA to permanently disqualify Red Star from European competitions because of a banner and the glorification of Ratko Mladić during and after the match against Viktoria Plzeň.

As reported by the Beta agency, the SMC filed an official complaint with UEFA against Red Star over the events at the Europa League match, as well as over the publication of photographs containing the controversial messages on the club’s official social media channels.

– A club that knowingly uses its official communication channels to spread messages glorifying a man convicted by a final judgment of genocide cannot reduce such conduct to the behavior of fans. This is no longer merely a matter of the stands, but of the club’s institutional attitude toward the values on which UEFA bases European football – the complaint sent to UEFA states.

During the match in Plzeň, Red Star fans displayed a banner reading “General, great glory and thank you,” while chanting Ratko Mladić’s name.

The SMC particularly pointed to Red Star’s posts after the match, when photographs were published on the club’s official profiles in which the controversial banners were clearly visible.

– Instead of distancing itself from such messages, the club made them part of its official communication after the match – the SMC letter to UEFA states.

The complaint states that such conduct constitutes grounds for applying provisions of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations concerning “discriminatory behavior, insults to human dignity, political and ideological messages inappropriate for sporting events, as well as conduct that brings football and UEFA into disrepute.”

The SMC also recalled an earlier disciplinary proceeding against Red Star, stating that UEFA concluded at the time that “the glorification of Mladić does not merely represent support for an individual, but a message that insults victims on an ethnic and religious basis.”

The Srebrenica Memorial Center called on UEFA to urgently initiate disciplinary proceedings, consider the behavior of the fans and the club as a single whole, and treat the publication of the controversial photographs as a particularly aggravating circumstance.