Red Army Mostar is a FK Veleà ¾ Mostar supporters' group in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Red Army Mostar was founded in 1981 in Mostar under the name Crveni à ¡ejtani (Red Devils) after FK Veleà ¾ Mostar won its first Yugoslav Cup final. The final game was won with a score of 3âÂÂ2 against FK à ½eljezniÃÂar at the Marakana stadium in front of more than 40,000 people. Following its inception, Crveni à ¡ejtani fell into a period of decline but resurfaced again in 1986, when FK Veleà ¾ once again reached the final of the Yugoslav Cup versus Dinamo Zagreb.
The game was won by Veleà ¾ with a final score of 3âÂÂ1. After that game, Crveni à ¡ejtani was renamed to Red Army. During that period, subgroups formed, including the Zealots, Eagles, Chicago, Furia, Carina and others. The group of FK Veleà ¾ fans in Sarajevo was called Red Platoon.
During the Yugoslavia period, FK Veleà ¾ was considered the pride of Herzegovina and was supported by all Herzegovinians. The fan base spanned Yugoslavia, with the most support coming from Konjic, ÃÂapljina, Travnik, Doboj, Tuzla and Dubrovnik.
During the 1985âÂÂ86 season, Mostar was a town of 110,000 people. However, eight thousand Red Army members traveled to Split to watch a Hajduk-Veleà ¾ match. This is just one of the many examples of the love that Red Army had for Veleà ¾. Veleà ¾ was viewed as a multi-ethnic team. Many Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs played in FK Veleà ¾.
Members of the Red Army are predominantly Bosniaks although the group is welcoming all nationalities. Attendance at the stadium rarely reaches levels seen in the 1980s, but on certain occasions, large numbers of fans gather.
Today, the Red Army Mostar is mostly composed of people from Mostar. A few groups come from Ilidà ¾a, Konjic, Jablanica, ÃÂapljina and Stolac.
Red Army's biggest rivals today are Ultras Mostar, a supporter group of another team from Mostar Hà  K Zrinjski Mostar. The rivalry is based on locality, ethnicity, and politics. FK Veleà ¾ and Red Army are multiethnic, while Zrinjski and Ultras are primarily Croats. Moreover, it is right to say that the Red Army is left-wing oriented while ultras are nationalistic and right-wing oriented. The rivalry began after the end of the Bosnian War, mostly because of the conflict between Bosniaks and Croats during the war.
The city of Mostar was divided between the east side, which is predominantly Bosniak, and the west side, which is predominantly Croat. Veleà ¾'s old stadium, Bijeli Brijeg Stadium remained on the west side of Mostar, so the club had to find a new stadium to be able to play matches. Its old stadium was given to Zrinjski. Matches between Veleà ¾ and Zrinjski are often afflicted with high levels of conflict.