Football in Lockdown: Shopping Centre Saturdays with a Twist

Despite the renewed lockdown in Serbia, where they shut down everything except supermarkets and pharmacies for the weekend, the last weekend before the winter break saw some footballing action in a shopping centre in a suburb of Belgrade.

Stadion Shopping Centar, I kid you not, hosted the evening’s Super Liga match between Voždovac and Partizan Belgrade.

Sounds strange? Well, FK Voždovac represent the eponymous suburb just across the dual carriageway from Red Star’s “Marakana” stadium and play on top of a shopping centre, literally. 

Belgrade loves its shopping centres – or at least it has seemed so during my time living here. In November, the biggest mall on the whole Balkan peninsula opened up in the upmarket Waterfront district. This behemoth adds to the ten or so other temples to consumerism dotted around the city, on top of a long pedestrian street in the centre where all the top brands can be found. 

So, when FK Voždovac looked to cash in on their ground in the mid 2000s, a shopping centre was a natural choice, right? 

Around 150,000 people live in this municipality that’s sandwiched between a dual carriageway and a motorway. Traffic is a nightmare if you’re coming from the centre, so yes, maybe a shopping centre in the ‘hood did make sense. But what to do with FK Voždovac?

From Regional League to National Powerhouse

Formed in 1912, the club had always played second (or third or fourth) fiddle to bigger sides in the Serbian capital. While Yugoslavia was still intact it spent most of its days battling it out in the Belgrade league  before rising up to the second tier in 2004.

A merger in 2005 saw the “Dragons” acquire a spot in the First League. They managed to place in the European spots in 2006 but were still plagued by the financial mismanagement of their predecessors and were denied a spot in the UEFA Cup. 

The new club bounced between the leagues for a few years, before the saving grace arrived.

The prospect of groundsharing is a nightmare for most fans but sharing with a shopping centre is pretty much unheard of. Voždovac’s president used his business nous and teamed up with a German company to redevelop the site of the old, dilapidated, multi-purpose ground. 

They would build a shopping centre, put a ground on top and the club would flourish from the sponsorship of the financial success beneath. 

Far fetched? Well, it seems to be working. Vozdovac have now been in the Serbian top flight for eight successive seasons and seem in no danger of relegation. They’ve attracted a couple of foreign players, their youth system looks strong, and they went into their penultimate match before the winter break in seventh place out of 20 in Serbia’s top flight. 

Worlds Apart from Other Clubs

Off the pitch, things are impressive too. I’d first visited the ground in the autumn of 2015 – not long after I’d moved to Belgrade. For the life of me I couldn’t tell you who Voždovac were playing, but I had to get a peek at one of the few rooftop grounds in the world.

I was impressed then, as I have been every time I’ve visited. It’s a compact ground, where you feel right on top of the action. The pitch seems narrow, but you can hear everything on the pitch and almost smell the sweat and wintergreen. 

However, there is one issue. I’m not sure anywhere in the ground where you can see the whole pitch. Pillars block the view from the fifth or sixth row, while the closer you get to the pitch, the touchline disappears. Maybe it was one for the novelty checklist, after all.

Anyway, I’d been to the ground a few times since, twice to see Partizan scrape a rooftop victory, and once to catch the second half of a match after my old man came to town and stubbornly insisted on heading there instead of coming to Partizan’s JNA, where I had a season ticket. 

This time however, there were no fans. Despite the fact that all games at the Shopping Centar Stadion have a limited capacity due to security reasons – Serbia’s supposed hooliganism problem probably means that we’ll never see a full 5,000 capacity crowd here – this game was to be played behind closed doors. 

Sensing an article may be worth writing, and wanting to see Partizan play for the last time in 2020, I decided to apply for a press pass.

Unlike with other clubs in Serbia, I received a reply by email within a day. They asked me to call if I needed anything and they were very friendly, instructing me to go to Parking level minus two and get the lift up. Frankly, I was glad to not have to hike all the way up on foot again, but I was also intrigued to see what was what behind the scenes. 

I waited patiently behind the Partizan directors as the steward checked everyone’s name before ushering us into the lift up to the fifth floor. When I got out it felt like I was walking into a hotel lobby. A spiral staircase led downwards from the marble floor to what I later found out was the players’ entrance. A porter waited behind the desk for another check of my name and I was ushered into the press box.

It was a pristine, enclosed area with tables laid out and my name waiting for me along with the team sheets. I’d come prepared for the December weather, but the heating was turned on to the max, so I quickly took my coat off, and tried to look the part. 

I plugged my laptop in, logged into the wifi , which worked, and settled down to watch the game (or at least the 95% of the pitch I could see). It was a definite upgrade on most, if not all the grounds, I’ve been to in Serbia.

At half time, they’d even laid on soft drinks and water for us, along with a bowl of snacks to dip our hands into. So much for the COVID restrictions!

FK Voždovac v Partizan Belgrade

Voždovac headed into the game after just one win in five, and fielded a young side including four players under the age of 21. The visitors meanwhile, had won six in a row and despite relying on late goals more than once, looked unstoppable as they hoped to catch up with runaway leaders and big rivals, Red Star.

Over the years the shopping centre has hardly been a happy hunting ground for the black-and-whites. The narrow pitch hampers their free-flowing, expressive game and my last two visits saw narrow 1-0 and 2-1 wins. And since they’d restricted the number of fans allowed in, it had been two defeats in three since my last trip. 

Young Nikola Štulić who scored the late winner last time out against Čukarički, still had to look on from the bench from the outset but Seydoubah Soumah, the architect of that goal,  made his first start in a while. All the pre-match talk had surrounded the diminutive Guinean with manager Aleksandar Stanojević insisting that he needed to see more consistency from his attacking midfielder. 

The hosts edged a poor first half hour and should have taken the lead with a chance early on. Partizan failed to clear a good cross from the right but despite being in acres of space, attacker Pantović could just find the outside of the post. 

Voždovac’s Lithuanian winger, Justas Lasickas, was a constant thorn in the side of Partizan’s makeshift full-back, Macky Bagnack, but the strikers rarely tested young Aleksandar Popović between the sticks for the black and whites. That is until the last action of the first half. 

Young winger Luka Cvetićanin broke down the right and took advantage of the short space until the edge of the box and drew a smart save from the young goalkeeper. 

The second half started much as the first with Bagnack immediately giving the ball away twice on the half-way line, opening the door for a couple of Voždovac attacks. Just a minute later he resorted to a last-ditch foul and took a yellow card for his trouble.

But just one minute later Partizan showed that they needed just one chance to take control of the game. Aleksandar Šćekić expertly won the ball in midfield and threaded an inch-perfect pass through to Takuma Asano, who controlled with ease and slid the shot past the helpless goalkeeper for his eleventh of the season. 

That didn’t alter the balance of play though. The hosts continued to dominate possession and played some nice football. Partizan were sloppy and failed to clear their lines on multiple occasions and it felt as though they were riding their luck a little. 

Bibras Natho’s introduction for Soumah was a controversial one. The Guinean trundled slowly off the pitch and after a brief word with manager, Stanojević, walked down the tunnel. But the change definitely paid off. 

On 78 minutes a quick free-kick in the centre circle saw the Israeli captain in acres of space. He waited for the run of fellow substitute Lazar Marković and played an expert pass into his path which the former Liverpool man cooly put away. 

Both sides made the most of the new five substitutions rule and the game became a real stop-start affair. Partizan saw the game out with relative ease and made it seven wins in a row. Again, they closed the gap on Red Star to six points but that would only last for 24 hours. 

Into the New Year

It’s difficult to assess what this match means for either side. Despite their European exploits, it seems that nothing will stop Red Star on their march towards a third successive title, as they too made it seven from seven in domestic competitions. Therefore, Partizan look like they’ll need to settle for second place again this term. 

As for Voždovac, they showed some promise but always lacked that cutting edge. The benefit of playing on the only artificial pitch in the league and on such a narrow one will only carry them so far. However, it seems that the club is run well from top to bottom, so there’s definitely plenty to be hopeful for. 

Me? I just hope that I can get back to the stands and away from the press box when football returns in February. I miss my mates, I miss singing and I miss not having to hide who I support. But I guess this was better than spending the day shopping.

 

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