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

One says that the bloody civil war 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 previously irrelevant soccer club, which - not surprisingly - won the Serbian championship.

We will talk about all this with Frank Willmann and Barbi Marković. Frank Willmann is a regular columnist for the socialist daily newspaper "nd", a member of the Academy for Football Culture and author of the critically acclaimed book "Der Pate von Neuruppin". His most recent book "Balkanblut. The Life and Death of the Serbian Mafioso and Warlord Arkan" is one of the two occasions for our interview. The other occasion 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 Book" received the 2025 Football Book of the Year Award from the German Academy of Football Culture.

Registration is required for participation on site, you can find the information here https://www.rosalux.de/veranstaltung/es_detail/RCL1Z

The event will also be livestreamed.