The venue for the final was the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade played in front of 40,000 fans. That season, Željezničar finished the 1980–81 Yugoslav First League in a disappointing 14th position which meant the club did not play in Europe even though it made the Yugoslav Cup final. UEFA Cup 1984–85 semi-finalists Željezničar's best international result was recorded in the 1984–85 season. The team, led by manager Ivica Osim, reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup (renamed to UEFA Europa League since the 2009–10 season) where they were eliminated by Hungarian team Videoton. Željezničar finished the domestic championship in third place in the season before, qualifying them for the competition. Željezničar appeared to have had the result at home, leading 2–0 (3–3 on aggregate) against the Hungarians that would send them into a final against Spanish club Real Madrid on the away goals rule; however, two minutes from full-time Videoton scored a crucial goal, eliminating the home side 4–3 on aggregate. Edin Bahtić finished the competition as second-top scorer with 7 goals, one short of József Szabó. Prior to this success, the team played the quarter-final stage of the inaugural year of the UEFA Cup competition. Post-independence (1992–present) After the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, war broke out and football stopped. The game between Željezničar and FK Rad scheduled to be played on 5 April 1992 at Stadion Grbavica as part of Round 26 of the 1991–92 Yugoslav First League was abandoned 35 minutes (14:55 p.m. local time) before kick-off due to gunfire around the stadium, a result of the first attack on Sarajevo. Ultimately, the club's final completed match in the Yugoslav Championship was a 6–1 defeat on 29 March 1992 in Belgrade against Partizan. Players like Mario Stanić, Rade Bogdanović, Gordan Vidović, Suvad Katana and many others had days earlier went abroad to escape the horror of war, leaving it up to junior players to play out remaining rounds of the championships. However, all of Željezničar's matches in the 2nd half of the 1991–92 season were declared void due to rule, as the club could not play out remaining matches due to the ensuing war. In 25 (out of possible 33) rounds completed, the club collected 6 wins, 4 draws and 15 losses, with a 22:42 goal difference. The stadium was right on the front lines, and on 7 May 1992, the western side was destroyed along