Formed in 1948 when sports sections of Youth Physical Culture Society Red Star were transformed into clubs, it is the only Serbian club that has won a UEFA competition, the European Cup in Italy in 1991.
Like most Serbian football clubs, Red Star is publicly owned. Its biggest sponsor is the Delta company of Miroslav Mišković, whose son Marko manages the club.
In late 2007, Toplica Spasojević, a member of the business club Privrednik and a founder and director of the ITM group, became president of Red Star. Since then. things have not gone smoothly. In 2007, violence broke out during a match with Hajduk Kula and hooligans attacked a police officer.
Last February Dragan Džajić, Red Star’s most famous player and a former club president, was arrested with two other former Red Star officials, Vladimir Cvetković and Miloš Marinković, for stealing money from the transfer of Goran Drulić to Real Zaragoza in 2001. Investigators also were looking into the transfers of Ivan Dudić to Portugals FC Benfica in 2000, Nemanja Vidić to Spartac Moskow in 2004, Perica Ognjenović to Real Madrid in 1998, and Zoran Njeguš to Atletiko Madrid in 1998. Džajić, Cvetković and Marinković have spent five months in custody. Police also are looking at the role of agent Ravko Stojić in the Dudić transfer.
In August, Spasojević resigned. The next month, Uroš Mišić was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of the policeman during the Hajduk match.
Former Red Star board member Slobodan Radulović is on Interpol’s list of most wanted suspects. He is the ex-director of C-market and fled the country to avoid arrest as part of the “bankruptcy mafia,” a group accused of devaluing privatized firms and selling them off.
A sponsor is Futura Plus, owned by Stanko Subotić, implicated in tobacco smuggling in the Balkans.