Sarajevo derby

The history of the Sarajevo derby dates back to 1954, but the rivalry began eight years earlier. At the end of World War II, the three major clubs in Sarajevo, Đerzelez, SAŠK and Slavija, were disbanded by the new authorities which formed FK Sarajevo in 1946. Since the idea was for this new club to represent the city on a national level, SD Torpedo, as FK Sarajevo was initially called, needed the best players from the city. Numerous notable players were brought to the club, and they received good salaries for that time. On the other side, FK Željezničar Sarajevo is a club which was formed by a group of railway workers much earlier, in 1921. However, until then, during the pre-war period, they were in the shadow of Đerzelez, SAŠK and Slavija and had never managed to qualify to the Yugoslav Championship. Željezničar won the second-tier Bosnian championship title in 1946, as part of the Yugoslav football league system, and that achievement marked the beginning of their climb. After the war, these two clubs became the most prominent and successful clubs in Sarajevo, and since then, the rivalry between the two has been intense.

FK Sarajevo supporters were considered to be upper-class individuals, mainly from Bosniak dominated old and central parts of town. On the other side, supporters of FK Željezničar were usually working-class with a liberal image. Those differences were later partly erased. FK Željezničar still has the image of a liberal club and they are also popular among…