The Warlord Owner of a Champions League club

Every three minutes, you somehow hear something more shocking...and when you believe you've heard it all, you hear something that further shocks.

Why on earth the story of this video is so outrageous that you can respond every single line with, "...what? Wait, what??"

Criminal warlords still own premier league clubs, just became more discreet and sophisticated

Tifo rarely misses. What a great video.

Lazio ultras famously paid tribute to him when he died They had a banner that said - “Honor to the Tiger, Arkan”. Sinisa Mihajlovic begged them not to do it but they did anyway. A week later Juventus fans had a banner that said - “Honor to the cat, Silvester”

I am from Bosnia and know the history of this scumbag pretty well. He always tried to be upper class and well-spoken, but was a simple non-educated street criminal. His fame comes from ratting partners out and working as a hitman for the yugoslav secret service. His father saved him several times in younger years, because he was an army officer and had wide connections. On his own, this guy would have been killed within a day by other criminals.

It's amazing how Tifo make what should be a 2hr documentary into a 10min video 😂

What a bonkers story. Just keeps getting crazier. Shame this scumbag didn’t end up rotting in the Hague like he deserved to.

One thing not mentioned is that his father's friend was Secretary of Interior and the head of secret police Stane Dolanc. "Whenever Ražnatović was in trouble, Dolanc helped him, allegedly as a reward for his services to the UDBA, as seen in the escape from the Lugano prison in 1981. Dolanc is quoted as having said: "One Arkan is worth more than the whole UDBA."

Political stories around football is one of the most intriguing genres of storytelling that you have found

Crazy 90s in Serbia.. Arkan even used a real tiger as a team's mascot so you can google pictures of little tiger running on the field before their match against Bayern Munich in Belgrade. There is a story that Ceca (she is basically an folk/pop icon in Serbia) and her people cut one player's leg off because he didn't want to accept transfer to Turkish club, so later they used that as an example to all other players in club who didn't want to accept outgoing transfers if club already made a deal.

When I was a young naïve journalist in the 90s in the USA I went to Belgrade to do a story about Arkan and we saw the Bayern Munich and Obilic champions league game. Ottmar Hitzfeld tells looked bewildered, but It was a wild scene. He had a baby tiger that he would bring on the field. he used Tigers members as guards around all of his properties. By then it seems like they must’ve been drinking because they just told us all these horrible war stories almost without us asking. It was pretty morbid, but I bought a Arkin Tigers T-shirt at the avalanche game which I had since thrown away.

Suddenly... the Glazers don't seem so bad 😂

It gets more bizarre. Arkan's friend, lawyer & co-owner at Obilic (giovanni di stefano) tried to buy Dundee FC in Scotland. Di Stefano, known as The Devils Advocate, had represented Slobodan Milosevic, Gary Glitter, Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz and Chemical Ali, and claimed to be friends with Mugabe and Bin Laden. The bid failed due to links with Arkan but di Stefano eventually made it onto the board at Dundee. He wanted a big signing, suggesting Juve star Edgar Davids (at Dundee fc!) Or Gazza, before somehow persuading Fabrizio Ravanelli to sign. Six months later the club is bankrupt and Di Stefano disappears. It further emerges The Devils Advocate isn't actually a qualified lawyer at all. In 2011 he was arrested in Spain and convicted of fraud and money laundering charges. He should be due for release very soon.

Highly recommend James Montague's book "Among the Ultras", he delves into this story and the wider context in Serbia so well. Cool to see Tifo working with him

The world does such a good job of hiding these kind of atrocities from the public. Insane to think of what is going on we never hear about

I am from Serbia. Normal people look at him as some of the worst people ever lived in our country.

Sini sama Mihajlovic was one of his admirer, I remember he applauded to one section of Olimpico where there is a banner written "Onore ala Tiger Arkan"

Ex Yugoslav football is a treasure trove for this sort of stuff. Current Serb president was said to have been in the stands during that infamous game v Dinamo Zagreb. He’s also got links to Red star’s ultras today. Great guardian article on them recently. Enjoyed the video, great stuff 👍

Misread the title as watford owner of a champions league club - one can dream