Povijest Bijelih Anđela

Nogometni klub Zagreb u svojoj stoljetnoj povijesti uvijek je privlačio simpatije brojnih Zagrepčana, te iako drži rekord po broju posjetitelja u Maksimiru (65 000 ljudi je 1973. gledalo utakmicu Zagreb-Osijek za ulazak u tadašnju prvu jugoslavensku ligu), prošlo je dugo vremena prije nego što je dobio i svoju Ultras navijačku skupinu.

Povijest organiziranih navijača NK Zagreb počinje krajem 80-ih godina, točnije u prosincu 1989. godine kada su se prvi zainteresirani dečki dogovorili s direktorom i klupskom legendom Dračićem kako bi pomogli klubu da nakon šest godina iz trećeg razreda jugoslavenskog nogometa konačno pređe u drugu. Ubrzo uzimaju ime White angels. Prvu utakmicu odrađuju na gostovanju u Varaždinu u ožujku 1990. Ubrzo se pojavljuju prvi transparenti s natpisima 'White Angels' i stare zastave SR Hrvatske s imenom kluba. U sezonama 89/90 i 90/91 na jačim utakmicama tadašnje 2. savezne lige navijaju s istočnog stajanja stadiona u Kranjčevićevoj ulici. U sezoni 1990/1991 na istočnom stajanju pojavljuju se transparenti Ultra Boys i Crazy South Boys, što je bio znak izmješane tribine sa mnogo podskupina te puno manjih bijelo-plavih zastava. U to vrijeme bilježimo još navijačkih gostovanja u bivšoj državi, anđeli odlaze u Petrinju protiv tamošnje Mladosti, u Zaprešić protiv Jugokeramike i u Goricu protiv Radnika. Vrh te sezone bila bi utakmica protiv Zadra, u kojoj se odlučivao prvak te treće lige, na kojoj je organizirana i velika bakljada uz stotinjak aktivnih navijača. Starije generacije nam pričaju o plivanju u Manduševcu u dresovima koje su skinuli sa igrača poslije te famozne utakmice.

Rat prekida sva navijačka djelovanja stare garde White Angelsa, samo njih par dočekuju reorganizaciju skupine u sezoni 1992/93, kada nova generacija navijača u jesen 1992. ponovo radi ultra atmosferu na istoku Kranjčevićeve. Krajem te 1992. ekipa se skuplja na južnom dijelu istočne tribine, i u proljeće 1993. počinje aktivno pratiti NK Zagreb. Pojavljuju se novi transparenti White Angels, s natpisom raznih kvartova, udarni White Angels i veliki plavi transparent s natpisom NK Zagreb. Počinje se opet nakon one tekme sa Zadrom 90-te koristiti pirotehnika, po koju se odlazi u Trst i tada lakše dostupnih vojnih dimnih uložaka. Tadašnja generacija navijača bili su većinom ekipa između 72` i 79` godišta, dolazili su iz zg-kvartova Brezovica, Maksimir, Trešnjevka, Jarun, Črnomerec… Ta ekipa išla je aktivno na gostovanja sezone 1992/93 i 1993/94 (Pula, Sisak, Šibenik, Varaždin) znalo je ići i dva busa, a na ostala gostovanja išlo se vlakom. Tih godina izrađuju se navijački šalovi njih 4 vrste, dva klupska i dva navijačka, navijačke kape s malim šiltom i majice.

U narednim sezonama 1994/95 i 1995/96, došlo je do slabijeg praćenja kluba... od 200-tinjak ljudi sve je spalo na njih 20. Ostalo je dosta zabilježeno putovanje White Angelsa u Palermo 1994. godine na legendarnu utakmicu Italija - Hrvatska 1-2. Razloge rasipanju valjalo je tražiti u jačanju Bad Blue Boys-a kao grupe koja je tih sezona, kroz borbu za povratak imena, opasno krenula na bolje, a i neki su od važnih navijača jednostavno ostavili se navijanja radi posla i egzistencije.

Sezona 97/98 donijela je stagnaciju navijačke skupine Bijeli anđeli. No već se te sezone oko Zagreba okupljaju "neki novi klinci" te polako počinju s organiziranjem grupe. Prelazi se na zapadnu tribinu, rade se novi transparenti, odlazi se na gostovanja te se osniva Fan club White Angels. U tom razdoblju dolazi nesuglasica među članovima oko pogleda na navijanje i budućnosti grupe. Dio članova osnažen podrškom starijih Zagrebovih navijača i drukera s gornjih dijelova tribine krajem 2000. godine osnivaju drugu Udrugu navijača, kako bi mogli i službeno nastupati pred klubom i javnošću. 2001. godinu Anđeli dočekuju razdvojeni u dvije suprotstavljene frakcije, odvojeni jedni od drugih na istoj tribini, kako na svom tako i na gostujućim stadionima. U sljedećih godinu dana Fan club nestaje s navijačke pozornice te Udruga „Bijeli Anđeli“ ostaje jedina organizirana potpora NK Zagrebu. Oslobođeni suvišnih sukoba stvari kreću nabolje.  Kulminaciju navijačkih aktivnosti Udruga doživljava sljedeće 2002. Godine te se podudara s godinom u kojoj Zagreb dolazi do naslova najboljeg u državi. Prvaka Hrvatske na utakmicama bodri i do 300 navijača a na gostujuće utakmice se odlazi vlakom, autobusom ili automobilima u brojci i do 100 ljudi. Sredinom 2000.-ih NK Zagreb i njegovi navijači proživljavaju skladno razdoblje. Kroz godine se sastav Udruge mijenjao, ljudi su dolazili i odlazili, a najvažnije je to da je Zagreb u tom razdoblju imao navijačku podršku na svim domaćim i više od 90% gostujućih utakmica, i u Hrvatskoj i u (nažalost rijetko) Europi. Od europskih gostovanja valja istaknuti put u Albaniju autostopom preko Bosne i Srbije te susret sa Ferencvaroševim huliganima u Budimpešti protiv ZTE-a.

Do 2008. godine Udruga navijača NK Zagreb surađuje s upravom NK Zagreb na način da klub osigurava popust na godišnje ulaznice za članove te sufinancira unajmljivanje autobusa za duža i skuplja gostovanja iako takva čak i površna suradnja s klubom u očima drugih navijačkih skupina nije percipirana kao apsolutno ultra mentalitet. Razlog tome je želja za promocijom kluba među širom bazom simpatizera. Osim klasičnih ultrasa na tribini s Bijelim Anđelima tada navijaju i takozvani „obični“ navijači i na putovanja na gostujuće terene su pozvani svi zaljubljeni u bijelu boju. Klupska uprava se zatim upušta u jedan vrlo ambiciozni i po klub poguban projekt. Mijenja se sekundarna boja kluba, te klupski grb, što dovodi do razdora i unutar Bijelih anđela. Dio udruge bliske upravi, i zaljubljenih u financijsku ovisnost prema klubu, prihvaća u ime cijele grupe novi klupski amblem. To dovodi do opsadnog stanja u grupi te rezultira odlaskom te ekipe koja je mimo ostatka grupe odobrila ovaj katastrofalan potez klupske uprave. Veoma brzo se spoznaje da ambicioznosti, napretka i suvislog marketinga neće biti te navijači vrše pritisak na predsjednika Medića da vrati početni grb. Pritisak se pretvorio u otvoreni rat u kojem je bilo, osim šaljivih sprdanja Medićeve poslovne sposobnosti, i fizičkih sukoba, razbijenih stakala predsjednikog automobila te iluzija da crveni grb predstavlja novi, iznimno uspješni, NK Zagreb. U  tom momentu borba za povratak starog grba i odlazak politički podobnog mafijaša s čela kluba trajala je nesmanjenim intenzitetom nekoliko godina i rezultirala je odlaskom većine starih Zagrebovih drukera s tribina u Kranjčevićevoj, te vrlo teško stanje unutar Bijelih anđela koji jedva da uspijevaju egzistirati u svojoj maloj brojci od svega dvadesetak članova. U takvoj atmosferi za grupu bilo je jako teško postojati, a još teže graditi veću navijačku bazu. Ipak Bijeli anđeli sve do sezone 2014/2015. odrađuju sve domaće nogometne utakmice i dobar dio gostujućih. Ove zadnje godine rastu pritisci i na samu navijačku grupu, i na kraju priče u udruzi se, paralelno s gubitkom strpljenja anđela i identiteta NK Zagreba, javlja ideja za pokretanjem novog kluba. U tom vremenskom periodu NK Zagreb igrao je Drugu hrvatsku ligu gdje je ostvarivao vrhunske rezultate, te ekspresno povratio svoj prvoligaški status, no za nas rezultati više nisu bili dovoljni.  Ta ideja nije bila samo povratak identiteta NK Zagreb, već se od početka razmišljalo i o povratku nogometa navijačima, te nogometa svojim korijenima igre, kako više ne bi navijali za klub koji nekome služi kao praonica novca. Razmišljalo se i o društvenoj angažiranosti i aktivizmu kluba, upravo na primjeru Bijelih anđela, kako bi zajednički nastupali za neke pozitivne društvene vrijednosti. Bijeli anđeli od samih početaka dali su neizmjeriv doprinos u organiziranju NK „Zagreb 041“ te zajedno s brojnim ostalim članovima kroje njegovu budućnost,  te sada aktivno organiziraju navijanje za novi, direktnodemokratski i svoj NK Zagreb.

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THE WHITE ANGELS: A SHORT HISTORY

Over the course of its 100 year history, Zagreb football club has always attracted the sympathies of many from Zagreb and beyond, holding the record for match attendance at Maksimir stadium, when 65 000 people watched the 1973 Zagreb-Osijek game, in which Zagreb battled for entry into what was then the first Yugoslav league. The club only received its first Ultras fan association relatively recently however.

The history of organised fan support for NK Zagreb began at the end of the eighties, more precisely in December 1989 when the first interested lads made a deal with the director, the club legend Dračić, their support helping the club move up from the third Yugoslav football league to the second. They quickly took the name White Angels and their first match was an away game in Varaždin in March 1990. The first banners with the words ‘White Angels’ emblazoned on them appeared soon after, alongside the old flag of the Socialist Republic of Croatia with the club name written on it. During the 89/90 and 90/91 seasonsthe games pulled a decent crowd in what was then the 2nd Yugoslav league, and the White Angels supported the team, standing on the east side of the stadium in Kranjčević street. In the 90/91 season, on the East side once again, the banners Ultras Boys and Crazy South Boys appeared. This was a sign that the terraces were becoming more mixed, with different sub-groups appearing and numerous small white and blue flags on the terraces. Several away games were attended in the ex-Yugoslav state, the Angels going to Petrinja in a match againstMladost, to Zaprešić against Jugokeramika and to Gorica against Radnici. The height of the season was the match against Zadar in which they affirmed their place at the top of the third league. A pyro show was organised with around a hundred fans participating. Older generations of fans recounted swimming in Manduševecafter this game and the players giving them the team strips after the final whistle.

War interrupted all the activities of the old White Angels group, and only a couple of them waited for the group to regroup in the 1992/3 season when a new generation of fans got involved. From Autumn 1992, they created an ultras atmosphere once again on the east side of Kranjčevićev stadium. At the end of 1992, the group moved to the south side of the east terraces, and in Spring 1993 began to actively follow NK Zagreb. New ‘White Angels’ banners emerged, with the names of various neighbourhoods, as well as a main White Angels big blue banner with NK Zagreb written on it. After the game against Zadar in 1990 they began to use pyrotechnics once again, getting hold of them in Triestealong with the more readily available army smoke bombs. This generation of fans were mostly born between 1972 and 1979 and came from the Zagreb neighbourhoods of Brezovica, Maksimir, Trešnjevka, Jarun, and Črnomerec. This group actively attended away games in the 1992/3 season and 1993/4 (Pula, Sisak, Šibenik, Varaždin). Two buses typically went, and the rest went by train. Over these years they designed and made four different fan scarves, two club and two fan, as well as peaked baseball caps and t-shirts.

In the 1994/5 and 1995/6 seasons, support for the team was somewhat weaker, dropping from a previous fan base of around two hundred to around twenty. 20. Despite this, a White Angels

trip to Palermo in 1994, attending the legendary Italy – Croatia (1-2) match was organised. The reasons for the group’s weaker fan base this year relate to the Bad Blue Boys getting ever stronger as a group largely through their fight to get the club name back. They turned a corner for the better, whilst some of the White Angels’ most hard-working fans simply gave up following the club because of other work and life commitments.

The 97/98 season brought with it the stagnation of the White Angels group. During this season, some ‘new kids’ were slowly starting to organise a group all over Zagreb. They moved over to the West terraces, made new banners, went to away games and founded the White Angels Fan Club. Over this period there was some disagreement amongst the members concerning how they viewed support for their team and the future of the group. One section of the membership was empowered by support from the older Zagreb supporters, some from the upper ends of the terraces and around the year 2000 they founded another fan association, so they could officially represent themselves to the club and the public. In 2001 the Angels split into two opposed fractions, separating off on the same terraces, both at home and away games. Over the next year the Fan club disappeared from the supporters’ stage and the “White Angels” fan club remained the only organised form of support for NK Zagreb. Free from the conflicts of the previous years, things started to move in a better direction. These fan activities culminated in 2002, overlapping with the year when Zagreb gained the title of being the best team in Croatia. Whilst they enjoyed being at the top of the league, around three hundredfans came to support the club. They went to away games by train, bus and car, reaching numbers as high as one hundred. In the middle of the 2000s NK Zagreb and their fans experienced a calm period. Over these years the club membership changed, people came and went, but most importantly of all, Zagreb had the support of its fans at all home games and more than 90% of away games, both in Croatia and in the unfortunately rare opportunities in Europe. Of all the European away games, the trip to Albania is particularly worthy of mention, hitchhiking through Bosnia and Serbia and meeting with the Ferencvaroš hooligans in Budapest against the ZTE.

Up until 2008 the NK Zagreb fan association collaborated with the management of NK Zagreb, with the club offering a discount to members on the season tickets and helping with costs for renting coaches for the long and expensive away matches, although compared with other teams in Croatia, the level of collaboration with the club was relatively superficial, whilst in the eyes of other fan associations this collaboration was seen as against the ultras mentality. The club wanted to promote itself amongst the widest possible base of admirers and this is why some collaboration arose. Apart from the classical ultras on the terraces a number of “ordinary” fans joined in the supporting and travelled to away matches – all those in love with the white strip were invited.

The club management then embarked on one very ambitious and, for the club, destructive project. They changed the secondary colours of the club and the club emblem, which led to a further split amongst the White Angels. One section of the membership was close to the club management and somewhat financially reliant on the club. They accepted the changes in the name of the whole fan group. This lead to open warfare in the group and resulted in one section leaving who were not in favour of approving the catastrophic moves made by the club management. It became clear very quickly that the new management’s ambition, taste for personal advancement at the expense of others and over-marketing wouldn’t hold with the fans, who started putting pressure on the club manager Medić to return the original club crest.

The pressure turned into an open war in which, apart from some humorous comments over Medić’s ability to work, and physical conflicts resulting in some minor damage to the president’s car, the illusion that the red crest represented a new and amazingly successful NK Zagreb did not pass. At this point the fight began to return the old crest and bring about the departure of the local political mafia from the head of the club. This fight reduced in intensity after a number of years and resulted in the departure of the majority of old Zagreb fans from the terraces at Kranjčević stadium, creating a difficult situation inside the White Angels, who hardly managed to keep going, with a small fan base of less than twenty. In this atmosphere the group could hardly survive let alone build itself up. Nevertheless the White Angels have survived up to 2014/15, attending all home games and a good number of away games. Over the last few years pressure increased on the fan group and at the end of this story the group, sick of losing their patience with the NK Zagreb management over the change of club identity, got the idea of setting up a new club. At this point, NK Zagreb had dropped down to the second Croatian league where it had achieved top class results, quickly returning it to its first league position, but for the White Angels, these results weren’t enough. The idea hadn’t just been to return NK Zagreb’s identity, but from the start it had been about returning football to the fans, and football to the roots of the game, without us carrying on supporting a club which exists so a certain individual can launder money. Thinking through the other social activist tendencies of the club and fan base, and taking its lead from the White Angels, a new club (NK Zagreb 041) was set up with the aim of working together on a progressive social project. From the very beginning, the White Angels had made a massive contribution to setting up NK Zagreb 041 and together with a number of newcomers starting working on the new club’s future, being actively involved in supporting the new, direct-democratic NK Zagreb.

 

 

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