Football club Vojvodina is celebrating its 108th birthday today.
On that occasion, today at 11 am, the president of FK Vojvodina Dragoljub Samardžić and representatives of the Veterans Section of FK Vojvodina will lay a wreath on the memorial plaque at Temerinska 12 in Novi Sad, at the place where the club was founded on this day in 1914. Also, before the start of the match against TSC, a wreath will be laid on the bust of one of the founders of Vojvodina, Dr. Kosta Hadži, which is located in front of the Karađorđe stadium.
Football Club Vojvodina was founded on March 6, 1914 in Novi Sad, by students of the Great Serbian Orthodox High School, which today bears the name of the high school Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. Among them were future university professor Vladimir Milićević, future chemist Milenko Hinić, future lawyers Radenko Rakić, Kamenko Ćirić and Kosta Hadži, future textile industrialist Milenko Šijakov, then his brother Đorđe and father Sava, as well as Gojko Tošić, Đorđe Živanov, Branko Gospođinački and Živojin Bajazet.
The decision to establish FK Vojvodina was the wish of the Serbian youth in Novi Sad to get their own sports club around which to gather. At that time, in Novi Sad, which then belonged to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, there were only three football clubs: the Hungarian NAK and UAK and the Jewish Juda Maccabi.
Taking into account the strained political relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and the fact that the World War 1 was already on the horizon, the Austro-Hungarian authorities did not look favorably on the establishment of a Serbian club in Novi Sad. For that reason, young high school students had to secretly found Vojvodina, practically illegally. This was done in the knitting workshop of uncle Sava Šijakov, in Temerinska Street No. 12, on the site of Tehnometal. It was decided that the name of the club would be Vojvodina, as an association with the former Duchy of Serbia and Tamiš Banat, the crown of the Austrian Empire that existed between 1849 and 1861, and which was created in accordance with the privileges given by the Austrian Emperor to Serbs in 1691.
The first match was played in May 1914 in Kovilj, a village 24 kilometers from Novi Sad, against the local FK Šajkaš. The leader of that first team of Vojvodina was Jovan Ljubojević. As his girlfriend lived in Kovilj, wanting to impress her by presenting his football team, he decided to take his friends to Kovilj and already in his first historical match, Vojvodina achieved a convincing victory with the result 0-5. On that day, the following played for Vojvodina: Svetozar Jocković, Milorad Milićev, Dušan Kovačev, Jovan Jocković, Ozren Stojanović, Uroš Čakovac, Živojin Ćeremov, Predrag Stojanović, Predrag Gavanski, Jovan Ljubojević and Sava Šijakov.
The team performed in white shorts and light blue jerseys, which were sewn by the mother of the player Milorad Milićev. Some players played in quality footwear of the Hungarian brand Kertes, while some performed in old and long-torn shoes, which, due to the blisters they received, they took off during the game and played the rest of the match barefoot.
Vojvodina left a great impression in Kovilj that day, and as they came, its players returned home on foot.
Unfortunately, it was the only game they played before the World War 1, in which players of the newly established club took part in the fight for the accession of Vojvodina to the Kingdom of Serbia, and later to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During the war, the Vojvodina football club was completely banned from any activity.
However, in 1919, only a year after the greatest war in the history of mankind, the football club Vojvodina was re-founded, thanks to Novi Sad students who were studying in Prague. This time, everything was done officially, so the club got its statute and the first managers. The first president of Vojvodina in history became Dr. Živko Bajazet, long-term president of the Serbian Commercial Bank and a member of the Prague Sokol Association, while Milenko Šijakov was appointed the first secretary.
The work of the club was financed exclusively from the contributions of its members, as well as from voluntary donations of engineers and architects Daka Popović, Ilija Balabušić, the Novaković brothers and the Dunđerski family.
In the same year, Novi Sad students brought the first real football equipment from Prague to Novi Sad (jerseys, balls) as a gift from the football club Slavia from Prague. The jerseys that were brought were half white, half red, exactly the way Slavia and Vojvodina still play today.
In the period from 1914 to 1919, Vojvodina played only friendly matches, as there was no real competition, and it was noted that in those years her jersey was worn by: Jocković I, Ljubojević, Milićev, Jocković II, Kovačev, Stojanović, Čakovac, Ćeremov, Ignjačev, Šijakov, Gavanski, Pirc, Malenčić, Antonić, Zeremski, Gavrilović, Kričkov and Dobrović.
During 108 years of existence, Vojvodina has achieved the greatest success at home by winning the SFRY title in 1966 and 1989 and winning the Serbian Cup in 2014 and 2020, while in European competitions the most valuable are winning the Central European Cup in 1977 and placing in the quarterfinals of the European Cup in 1967.
Tonight at 6:30 PM, Voša will meet TSC at Karađorđe in the 26th round of the Serbian Super League, and admission will be free. Football club Vojvodina once again invites all its fans to come to the stadium in as many numbers as possible, fill the stands of Karađorđe and help the red and whites in the birthday atmosphere in their efforts to achieve a very important victory.
