.
Yugoslavia and Serbia-Montenegro period In February 1945, during
World War II, a group of young men, active players, students and members of the Serbian United Antifascist Youth League, decided to form a Youth Physical Culture Society, that was to become Red Star Belgrade on 4 March. Previously, as of December 1944, all pre-war Serbian clubs were abolished, and on 5 May 1945, communist Secretary of Sports
Mitra Mitrović-Djilas signed the decree dissolving formally all pre-war clubs on the territory of
Socialist Republic of Serbia. The clubs were dissolved because during the
German occupation, there was an attempt to organize the league so all the clubs were labelled
collaborators by
Josip Broz Tito's
communist regime. The name Red Star was assigned after a long discussion. Other ideas shortlisted by the delegates included "People's Star", "Blue Star", "
Proleter", "
Stalin", "
Lenin",
etc. The initial vice presidents of the Sport Society – Zoran Žujović and Slobodan Ćosić – were the ones who assigned it. Red Star was soon adopted as a symbol of
Serbian nationalism within Yugoslavia and a sporting institution which remains the country's most popular to this day. On that day, Red Star played the first football match in the club's history against the First Battalion of the Second Brigade of KNOJ (
People's Defence Corps of Yugoslavia) and won 3–0. Red Star's first successes involved small steps to recognition. In the first fifteen years of existence, Red Star won one Serbian championship, six
Yugoslav championships, five
Yugoslav Cups, one
Danube Cup and reached the semi-finals of the
1956–57 European Cup. Some of the greatest players during this period were
Kosta Tomašević,
Branko Stanković,
Rajko Mitić,
Vladimir Beara,
Bora Kostić,
Vladica Popović,
Vladimir Durković and
Dragoslav Šekularac. As champions, Red Star were Yugoslavia's entrants into the
1957–58 European Cup where they were famously beaten 5–4 on aggregate by English champions
Manchester United in the quarter-finals. Manchester United, managed by
Matt Busby defeated Red Star 2–1 in the first leg in England before drawing 3–3 with them in Yugoslavia in the return match on 5 February at
JNA Stadium. The second leg is notable for being the last match played by the
Busby Babes: on the return flight to England the following day, the plane
crashed in
Munich, resulting in the deaths of 23 people, including eight Manchester United players. During the
Miljan Miljanić era, Red Star won four Yugoslav championships, three Yugoslav cups, two Yugoslav supercups, one Yugoslav league cup, one
Mitropa Cup and reached the semi-finals of the
1970–71 European Cup. A new generation of players emerged under Miljanić's guidance, led by
Dragan Džajić and
Jovan Aćimović. Red Star eliminated
Liverpool in the second round of the
1973–74 European Cup and
Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the
1974–75 European Cup Winners' Cup.
Branko Stanković, whose reign as head coach was to last four years, brought Red Star three trophies and the first great European final. After eliminating teams like
Arsenal,
West Bromwich Albion and
Hertha BSC, Red Star made for the first time the
UEFA Cup final. There, Red Star met
Borussia Mönchengladbach, who played five European finals from 1973 to 1980. The Germans fell behind one goal from
Miloš Šestić, but
Ivan Jurišić's own goal gave Gladbach a psychological advantage before the rematch. This game was played at the
Rheinstadion in
Düsseldorf, where the Italian referee
Alberto Michelotti gave a questionable penalty to the Germans, and the Danish player
Allan Simonsen sealed Red Star's fate.
The Foals won 2–1 on aggregate. After the 1970s, historical matches against
Udo Lattek's
Barcelona followed during the
1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup. In both matches, Barcelona were the better team and Red Star was eliminated. Remarkably, when Barça's
Diego Maradona scored his second goal in front of approximately 100,000 spectators at the
Marakana, the Belgrade audience were so excited about the goal that even the loyal Belgrade fans applauded Maradona.
Gojko Zec returned to the team in 1983, finding only one player from the champions generation he was coaching back in
1977,
Miloš Šestić. Zec similarly repeated the club's triumph from his previous mandate by winning the
championship immediately upon his arrival. Zec would later leave the club in a controversial ''
Šajber's case''-style scandal which was the result of irregularities in the
1985–86 season. After Zec left in 1986, there were great changes in the club. The management of the club, run by
Dragan Džajić and
Vladimir Cvetković, began to build a team that could compete with some of the most powerful European sides. During that summer,
Velibor Vasović became coach and the side was strengthened by acquiring a number of talented young players, among whom
Dragan Stojković and
Borislav Cvetković stood out. In the first season that started with penalty points, Red Star focused on the European Cup and achieving good results. In 1986, a five-year plan was developed by the club and Prof. Dr Veljko Aleksić with the only goal being to win the European Cup. All that was planned was finally achieved. On the club's birthday in
1987, it started.
Real Madrid were defeated at the Marakana. From that day through to March 1992, Red Star enjoyed the best period of success in its history. In these five seasons, Red Star won four National Championships; in the last of those four years of heyday, the club won the
1991 European Cup Final, played in
Bari, Italy. Red Star coach
Ljupko Petrović brought the team to Italy a week before the final in order to peacefully prepare the players for a forthcoming encounter with
Marseille. By that time, Red Star had 18 goals in 8 matches, whereas the French champions had 20. Therefore, the 100th European competing final was expected to be a spectacle of offense. Nonetheless, both Petrović and
Raymond Goethals opted for defence and the match settled down into a war of attrition. After a 120-minute match and only few chances on both sides, the match was decided following the penalty shootout. After several minutes of stressful penalties, one of Marseille's players,
Manuel Amoros, missed a penalty, and
Darko Pančev converted his penalty to bring the European Cup to Yugoslavia for the first time. Red Star won the shootout, 5–3, on 29 May 1991 in front of 60,000 spectators and the millions watching on television around the world. Twenty-thousand Red Star fans at the
Stadio San Nicola and millions of them all over Yugoslavia and the world celebrated the greatest joy in Red Star's history. Red Star went unbeaten at the
1990–91 European Cup in Bari and the
1991 Intercontinental Cup in
Tokyo. In 1992, the club was weakened by the departure of numerous players from the champions generation (new players were added, such as
Dejan Petković and
Anto Drobnjak). The success in the previous season caught the attention of European giants which rushed making lucrative offers to sign Red Star's best players. In addition, Red Star had to defend the continental trophy playing its home games in
Szeged,
Budapest and
Sofia due to the war in former Yugoslavia, thereby reducing their chances of defending their title.
UEFA changed the format of the competition that year and the
1991–92 European Cup was the first to be played in a format with two groups each having four teams. Despite the disadvantage of playing its home games abroad, Red Star still did well and finished second in the group behind
Sampdoria. In domestic competition, main rivals
Hajduk Split and
Dinamo Zagreb left the league, just as all the other clubs from
Croatia,
Macedonia and
Slovenia did, and the championship in Yugoslavia that was cut in size was played on the edge of observance of regulations around the beginning of the
Bosnian War. At the end of May, the
United Nations had the country under
sanctions and dislodged Yugoslav football from the international scene. The
Breakup of Yugoslavia, the
Yugoslav Wars, the inflation and the UN sanctions have hit Red Star hard. In the period between May 1992 and May 2000, only one
championship victory was celebrated at the Marakana. However, they did manage to win five
cups, along with several glorious European performances, including the famed
1996 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup showdown against Barcelona side which featured
Ronaldo and
Hristo Stoichkov. was the youngest captain ever in Red Star's history. Immediately after the
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended, Red Star won the
17th cup in its history by winning 4–2 against
Partizan. Two seasons later, the club returned to the European spotlight by making it to the
2001–02 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds, where Red Star was eliminated by
Bayer Leverkusen (0–0 and 0–3), which would later be a finalist in the Champions League that year.
Slavoljub Muslin left the bench in September 2001, after which Red Star's subsequent seasons became more volatile.
Recent era In the
2006–07 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds, Red Star was eliminated (3–1 on aggregate) by the same
Milan side which ultimately won that year's
competition. Furthermore, the campaign in Group F of the
2007–08 UEFA Cup was a large disappointment, especially given that the first game against
Bayern Munich was a sensational last-minute loss (by a score of 2–3 in Belgrade). In those years, Red Star's teams featured the likes of
Nikola Žigić,
Boško Janković,
Milan Biševac,
Dušan Basta,
Dejan Milovanović,
Segundo Castillo,
Ibrahima Gueye,
Nenad Milijaš and
Ognjen Koroman. After a six-year drought, Red Star won their 26th league title in
2013–14 season. Despite Red Star's success on the pitch in 2013–14, the financial situation at the club has worsened, so much so that the club were banned from participating in the
2014–15 UEFA Champions League for which they qualified by winning the Serbian SuperLiga. The UEFA Club Financial Control Body found Red Star's debts to players, some of whom had not been paid for at least six months, staff and other clubs, totalled €1.86 million. The club board were also alleged to have hidden debts and falsified documents. This, on top of an earlier UEFA disciplinary measure in 2011, meant Red Star did not meet the necessary Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play criteria and, as such, should not have been granted a UEFA license by the Serbian FA. Rivals Partizan took Red Star's place in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. After ten years of waiting, Red Star qualified for the
2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage. Red Star progressed through four
qualifying rounds and reached the
knockout phase of the tournament, becoming the first team in competition's history to reach the knockout phase after starting their season in the first qualifying round. Although Red Star played in the group stage of the first edition in which groups format was introduced in the European Cup,
1991–92 European Cup, the designation "Champions League" was only adopted a season later in which Yugoslav clubs were already banned from participating in. Thus, when Red Star eliminated
Red Bull Salzburg in the
2018–19 UEFA Champions League play-off round, and qualified for the
UEFA Champions League group stage, it meant that Red Star competed for the first time since the new format was introduced. Red Star became the first Serbian team to win a match in the UEFA Champions League when they defeated Liverpool. On 14 May 2019, the 1946 People's Republic of Serbia League title was officially recognized by the Serbian FA, meaning that Red Star's triumph in the
2018–19 Serbian SuperLiga was their 30th national championship. Red Star reached the
UEFA Champions League group stage for the second successive season after eliminating
Sūduva,
HJK Helsinki,
Copenhagen and
Young Boys. On 5 November 2019, cable television channel Zvezda TV started airing. In the
2020–21 Serbian SuperLiga, Red Star set a world record for the number of points gained in a single season with 108 points. Red Star won their eighth Serbian SuperLiga title in a row and completed their fifth consecutive
double in the 2024–25 season. ==Crest and colours==