The reasons for this are partly cultural, but also social and political. In a country as economically crippled and starved of opportunity as Serbia, sport serves as a proxy for all the feelings of glory and achievement that so many of its citizens are denied as individuals. As such, the match and scoreline become intensely personal. Sport also satisfies a widespread national yearning for collectivism and purpose. Yugoslavia was founded upon the transnational myth of “brotherhood and unity”, and Tito’s regime effectively fostered a sense of collective belonging. Those social bonds were torn apart in the 90s, as Serbia and others made an abrupt and violent transition from socialism to crooked crony capitalism, but a yearning for them remains. The football terraces fill that void and offer a sense of community and purpose that’s missing from civil society. And when you gather such a broad base of angry, downtrodden, disempowered people in one place, the outcome tends to be explosive.

The Partizan — Red Star rivalry is an omnipresent fixture of daily life that exists beyond match day and reaches far beyond the confines of the stadium. Take a walk through the capital and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single wall that hasn’t been defaced by the clubs’ supporters, with some going so far as to paint communal bins and other pieces of public property in club colours. Much like in Belfast, entire neighbourhoods are partitioned along sectarian lines and decorated with murals that pay tribute to whichever team is dominant in the local area.

The football terraces fill that void and offer a sense of community and purpose that’s missing from civil society

While supporters from both sides have well-earned reputations for hooliganism, their fanaticism sometimes manifests itself in more positive forms. The best example of this is a Partizan-inspired phenomenon called Grobarski Trash Romantizam (Gravedigger’s Trash Romanticism, which takes its name from the nickname for Partizan supporters: the grobari, or gravediggers). What started as a Facebook page in 2012 has grown into a small, counter-cultural movement that uses art to pay homage to its favoured club.

Boasting some 38,000 followers, GTR was initially a space for Partizan fans to share club-inspired memes that took notable pieces of art and modified them to express their feelings towards Partizan or their opponents. In one, a Jackson Pollock painting is re-imagined as a snapshot of the terraces after the team’s legendary comeback victory against London’s Queens Park Rangers in 1984. GTR also exists as a physical fanzine filled with essays, think pieces and poetry. In one issue, a contributor analyses the club from a Nietzschean perspective, while another uses former Smiths singer Morrissey to articulate the inherent romance of supporting Partizan.