Belgrade Derby Dynamic

Lessons for Glasgow?

Red Star Belgrade was one of the clubs included within the Celtic Player Trading column published on February 10th, and I encourage you to revisit how the club rated within the various metrics. I would characterize them as one of the closest peers for Celtic - a club playing in a relatively small domestic league, with a glorious history within the game, whose stature within the broader European landscape has fallen as financial resources have become heavily skewed.

Relative to Celtic, Red Star rated better in player trading across the various metrics, though still not highly within the peer group. I think both clubs have likely benefited from the inflationary environment rather than executed any sort of advanced or sophisticated player trading models.

The idea to dig deeper into Red Star, and their biggest domestic derby rival Partizan, was inspired by Paul John Dykes’ drawing an analogy between the latter and Queens Park on the Monday February 10, 2025, ACSOM show.

The increasingly feudal state of Scottish football, with Celtic the relative lords presiding over domestic football, and increasingly detaching financially, was not unique. Indeed, this sort of footballing feudalism is unfolding across European football, to varying degrees.

Since the launch phase of the analytics revolution, which I have assumed to have begun in the 2016-2017 season, Red Star went on to win 7-in-a-row and are well on their way to an 8th in the current season. They have also won the last 4 domestic cups, in which they outscored opponents 31-4 in aggregate….looked awful lordish!