UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings into Serbian club Crvena Zvezda over banners appearing to glorify the former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who died on Thursday.

The club, who play in the Serbian capital and have also been known as Red Star Belgrade, posted images on its social media feeds of its fans holding up banners during Thursday’s Europa League game against Viktoria Plzen stating: “General, eternal glory and thanks”.

Chants of Mladic’s name were also reported during the match.

🫡 pic.twitter.com/Mrh9Tnuf9w

— FK Crvena zvezda (@crvenazvezdafk) August 27, 2026

Mladic, 84, passed away earlier on Thursday. He was called the “Butcher of Bosnia” and was held responsible for Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, when 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

When his life sentence was confirmed in 2017, the presiding judge, Alphons Orie, said Mladic’s crimes ranked “among the most heinous known to humankind.”

Mladic died in custody in The Hague, the Netherlands, which houses convicts for international war crimes tribunals.

On Friday, European football’s governing body UEFA said in a statement to The Athletic it had opened disciplinary proceedings on three counts against the Serbian club, including “racist and/or discriminatory behaviour”, “transmitting a message that is not fit for a sports event” and “improper conduct of the team.”

The Srebrenica Memorial Center, which commemorates the 1995 genocide, contacted UEFA following the match to say that the banners could not be “reduced to the behaviour of fans.”

The statement, which is covered in the Bosnian media and has been verified by The Athletic, said: “A club that consciously uses its official communication channels to spread messages glorifying a man legally convicted of genocide cannot reduce such behavior to the behavior of fans.”

The statement added: “This is no longer just a question of the fans, but of the club’s institutional relationship to the values ​​on which UEFA bases European football.”

Mladic lost a final appeal against his conviction in 2021 (Peter Dejong / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

The Srebrenica Memorial Center and Crvena Zvezda have been contacted for comment.

Crvena lost Thursday’s match in Czech Republic 5-1, meaning they missed out on a spot in this season’s Europa League and will drop into the Conference League, European football’s third-tier competition.

Crvena are Serbia’s most successful club, having won a record 37 national league titles — across the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and modern-day Serbia — and won the 1991 European Cup.

The Tampa Bay Rays moved one step closer to a new stadium Friday, as Hillsborough County Commissioners approved plans, in a 5-2 vote, for a long-awaited park at Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus.

The county vote, one of the final major hurdles in securing the Rays’ new long-term home, came one day after Tampa’s city council voted 4-3 in favor of the stadium Wednesday.

With approval from the county and city, the Rays can now begin the bond and funding validation process before breaking ground on the new ballpark.

The stadium, which is planned to be ready for Opening Day 2029, is projected to cost just under $2.4 billion. The city agreed to provide $80 million to the Rays. The county agreed to provide $796 million. The club is reportedly expected to cover approximately $1.37 billion, plus all cost overruns.

The Rays’ quest for a new stadium has spanned decades, various potential sites and multiple ownership groups. Stu Sternberg, the team’s second owner, tried for many years to build a ballpark before selling the team to a group led by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski last year.

Gaining the city’s approval was an arduous process for the club. The council narrowly agreed with the team on a non-binding memorandum of understanding in May, and has pushed for changes in the deal since, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The Rays had previously asked Tampa for $180 million, and the team is now covering the $100 million difference.

“The opportunity before us is about much more than a ballpark,” Tampa mayor Jane Castor said in a news release Wednesday, following the city vote. “It’s about jobs, economic development, new investment, and creating a destination that will generate benefits throughout Hillsborough County for decades to come.”

Economists have repeatedly found in academic studies that taxpayer subsidies for stadiums deliver little to no economic gain for the public.

Major League Baseball must provide a $150 million loan for the project, according to the stadium development and funding agreement.

The team currently plays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., about 21 miles from the site of the planned ballpark on Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus in Tampa, Fla. A mixed-use development is to be built around the stadium, as is common for new ballpark construction.

The Rays have always struggled to draw fans and consistently have low payrolls, but they have also had notable on-field success for a small-market team. They have yet to win a World Series, however, since arriving as an expansion team in 1998.

A new stadium for the Rays could open the doors to MLB’s plans for further expansion. League commissioner Rob Manfred has said over the years that he wants to grow the number of clubs in the league by two to 32, but that the Rays and the Athletics first need to find new, permanent homes.

The A’s, who currently play in Sacramento, Calif., after leaving their longtime home in Oakland following the 2024 season, are building a stadium in Las Vegas that’s scheduled to open in 2028. New MLB teams would likely not begin play until some time in the next decade, however, after their host cities are chosen.

On the day Norway’s King Harald V died, the Norwegian team Uno-X Mobility claimed an emotional 1-2 on stage seven of the Vuelta a España.

Andreas Leknessund attacked solo six kilometres from the finish at the Valdelinares ski station, winning his first ever Grand Tour stage by 34 seconds from his compatriot and colleague Tobias Halland Johannessen.

“I had goosebumps when our DS (sports director) said we do it for the King today, and I think we made him proud,” Johannessen said afterwards, wearing a black armband, like his seven teammates. “I’m also proud of us as a team. To do it like this was a dream.”

In spite of the 3,500m of elevation gain during the stage and uphill finish to an elevation of just under 2,000m, Wout van Aert finished third. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider also won the intermediate sprint and moves into the lead in the points classification.

Tadej Pogačar attacked in the closing kilometres from the group of general classification favourites, adding 16 seconds to his lead at the top of the standings. The world champion now has an advantage of 3:50 to Enric Mas in second, with Primož Roglič one minute further back.

Felix Gall took 10 seconds out of Mas, and 23 on Roglič, Sepp Kuss and Oscar Onley, to jump up to fourth overall. He is now 11 seconds adrift of Roglič in third.

Analysis

The passing of Europe’s oldest reigning monarch at the age of 89 was marked with a minute silence at the start of the day in the Vall d’Alba, with Uno-X’s eight riders, plus Netcompany-INEOS’s Norwegian rider Embret-Svestad-Bårdseng, standing on the front row with their helmets removed.

There was no better way to pay homage to the King than by dominating the stage as Uno-X did.

Leknessund attacked from the flag on today’s stage and was rewarded with his first Grand Toru stage win (JOSE JORDAN / AFP via Getty Images)

“Just as we woke up today we had the news,” Leknessund said. “On the bus this morning we were even more motivated to go out and give it a proper fight to make it a day to remember.

“We can say a win in the Vuelta is not much in the bigger picture, but I know the King was really interested in sport, and I think it’s the best way (to show their respect).”

Victory, the team’s first at the Vuelta, continues their best-ever season, in which they’ve now won a stage in each of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta, as well as leading the Tour for two days through Torstein Træen.

Created in 2017, Uno-X team is a privately-funded national project, with only riders from Norway and Denmark permitted to compete for them. After several years impressing as a second-tier outfit, they were promoted to the WorldTour this season for the first time,

“It’s really incredible how the team is performing,” Leknessund said. “We go to every race with big ambitions.”

For Leknessund personally, he rates the win as more important than the five days he spent in the lead of the 2023 Giro d’Italia. “The maglia rosa was a really great memory, but to get this stage win feels like the one thing that was missing in my career,” he said.

“It was the big goal for the Vuelta and I’ve been close many times. This year I was second three times at the Giro, so to finally be able to get the big win really means a lot. I’ve been fighting and really working hard for this so it’s really, really big.”

Stage seven top 10

1. Andreas Leknessund | Uno-X Mobility (3:49:47)
2. Tobias Halland Johannessen | Uno-X Mobility (+34s)
3. Wout van Aert | Visma-Lease a Bike (+47s)
4. Jakob Omrzel | Bahrain – Victorious (+58s)
5. Juan Felipe Rodriguez | EF Education-Easypost (+1m 13s)
6. Iván Ramiro Sosa | Equipo Kern Pharma (+1m 16s)
7. Alexey Lutsenko | NSN Cycling Team (+1m 44s)
8. Eddie Dunbar | Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling (+1m 51s)
9. Léo Bisiaux | Decathlon CMA CGM (+1m 53s)
10. Raúl García Pierna | Movistar (+2m 14s)

General classification after stage seven

1. Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates XRG (19:32:37)
2. Enric Mas | Movistar (+3m 50s)
3. Primož Roglič | Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe (+4m 50s)
4. Felix Gall | Decathlon CMA CGM (+5m 1s)
5. Sepp Kuss | Visma-Lease a Bike (+6m 5s)
6. Oscar Onley | Netcompany INEOS (+6m 6s)
7. Richard Carapaz | EF Education-Easypost (+6m 12s)
8. Mattias Skjelmose | Lild Trek (+7m 17s)
9. Harold Tejada | XDS Astana (+7m 46s)
10. Gregor Mühlberger | Decathlon CMA CGM (+9m 29s)

Tadej Pogačar eased clear of his GC rivals on the final climb to extend his advantage in the red jerey (JOSE JORDAN / AFP via Getty Images)