Balkanblut und Piksi - Ein Abend über Fußball, Gewalt, Nationalismus, Jugoslawien und Hoffnung

There are countless anecdotes from the world empire of soccer. In the case of socialist Yugoslavia, two stand out in particular.

One says that the bloody civil war of the 1990s could have been prevented if only Yugoslavia had won the World Cup in Italy - a tournament that in fact only ended extremely unluckily for the "blues" in a penalty shoot-out against Argentina in the quarter-finals.

The other says that the end of Yugoslavia was sealed with the league match between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade, which had been scheduled just two months earlier. Due to serious riots between hooligans from both camps, the match could not be kicked off. Zagreb professional footballer and later Milan star Zvonimir Boban provided an iconic image of Croatian nationalism with his kung-fu kick against a policeman. The current Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić boasts that he was also there at the time.

Željko Raznatović, known as "Arkan", has always been in the thick of it instead of just being there. A Red Star hooligan and criminal who became famous during the civil war as a war criminal and commander of the so-called "Arkan Tigers", married a well-known pop singer and later became the owner of a hitherto irrelevant soccer club, which - not surprisingly - won the Serbian championship.
Clemens Meyer will talk about all this with Frank Willmann and Barbi Marković.

Frank Willmann is a member of the Academy for Football Culture and author of the critically acclaimed book "The Godfather of Neuruppin". His most recent book Balkanblut. Leben und Sterben des serbischen Mafiosos und Warlords Arkan is reason number one for the interview.

Reason number two is Barbi Marković's"Piksi book". Titled in reference to the legendary playmaker of the Yugoslavian national soccer team Dragan Stojković, it is not so much about soccer as it is about the social and cultural background noise. The "Piksi-Biuch" received the prize for the soccer book of the year awarded by the German Academy for Football Culture in 2025.

Clemens Meyer is a writer. His latest novel "Die Projektoren" is a tour de force through the history of Yugoslavia in the 20th century, received the Bavarian Book Prize 2024 and the LiteraTour Nord Prize 2025 and was shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2024. Clemens Meyer received the Lessing Prize 2025 of the Free State of Saxony for his complete works.

An event organized by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in cooperation with the publishing house Voland & Quist and the Scheune.

Presented by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in cooperation with Voland & Quist and scheune e. V.