Red Star Stadium

Stadion Crvena Zvezda (affectionately known as Marakana) is a multi-use stadium in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Crvena Zvezda. The stadium holds 51,328. It was built in 1957.

Stadion Crvena Zvezda (Marakana)

On 27 December, 1959, Red Star played its last match at the old stadium. FK Novi Sad was the opposition in a farewell game at the dilapitated arena built in 1927.

Together with the crumbling facility, a part of football history had left as well. At that stadium Moša Marjanović scored a famous goal on the Spanish keeper Ricardo Zamora, František Plánička was defeated, and after World War II plenty of beautiful and exciting games were played.

After the farewell game, stadium was demolished to be replaced by the modern new sporting facility at the exact same spot. In order to prepare the adequate construction area for the new stadium that was to be 12 meters lower than the previous one, over 350,000 cubic meters of soil and 15,000 cubic meters of stone had to be excavated.

So, after some 3 years of construction, the new stadium was ready to be unveiled. Well, sort of. The official opening took place on September 1, 1963 with the Yugoslav First League match against NK Rijeka (2:1). That day, some 55,000 spectators came through 9 enterance gates of 5 meters width each into the still unfinished stands.

The largest crowd was recorded that autumn at a derby against FK Partizan – 74,000 people. Next year, after the stadium was fully completed the capacity increased to 110,000 spectators and it got its unofficial moniker - Marakana, in honour of the famous Brazilian stadium. Apart from the exciting look, the new stadium also featured a magnificent grass pitch with drainage, which made the overall playing experience much more enjoyable.

First official goal on Red Star's Marakana was scored by a certain Trifun Mihajlovic in a youth match between Red Star and Jedinstvo from Zemun, a prelude to the first league match with NK Rijeka. First official top division goal is a deed of Vukoja from Rijeka while Dusan Maravic scored Red Star's first ever goal at Marakana with the tying effort in the same game.

Still on the subject of records, according to the number of tickets sold, Marakana saw its largest crowd on April 23, 1975 at the Cup Winners Cup semi-final home leg against the Hungarian side Ferencváros (2:2). There were officially 96,070 spectators in the stands that night with purchased tickets, but it is believed that the stadium was filled to the maximum allowable capacity which at the time was 110,000.

In the years since, Marakana‘s capacity was gradually decreased. Following different modernisation touch-ups more seats were put in each time. During mid 1990s in order to meet UEFA demands for spectators' comfort and security, standing places at the stadium were completely done away with. Seats were installed on all 4 stands so that the Marakana‘s maximum capacity today reaches 54,000.

Biggest matches

• European Champions Cup season 1972/1973 final between Ajax and Juventus (1:0) on 30 April, 1973, is among the record attendances on Belgrade’s Marakana. There were 91,564 spectators in the stands (the third highest attendance on the stadium's official all-time list), who came to see the European football stars of the day such as Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens, Johan Cruijff, Fabio Capello, Jose Altafini, Roberto Bettega, and others.

• Another major international football competition was played at Red Star’s stadium – 1976 European Football Championship. Marakana actually hosted two memorable matches: the semi-final, which Yugoslavia lost 2:4 in heartbreaking fashion to West Germany in extra-time after leading 2:0 for much of the game, and the final on June 20, 1976 that saw Czechoslovakia upset West Germany 5-3 on penalties after the game, as well as the extra-time ended in a 2:2 tie.

First visitor

The actual very first visitor to the Belgrade’s Marakana is also known. It is Laza Petrovic, peasant from the town of Loznica vicinity. This fiery Red Star fan arrived to the new stadium at 6 A.M., sat on his seat in the eastern stand, took out cheese and a bannock from his bag, ate his breakfast and waited patiently until the late afternoon for the game to start.