Partizan Belgrade can clich their first title in three years with a victory on Saturday over Hajduk Kula and a loss or draw for Zvezda (Red Star) who host OFK Beograd. If Partizan stumble, then we could see a really thrilling final week of matches.

The race for a possible UEFA Cup and/or Intertoto Spot is really heating up as only two sides cannot reach that plateau. Removing Bezanija who are relegated, Banat with 28 points can only hope to avoid direct relegation with their remaining matches at 3rd placed Vojvodina on Saturday followed by a home match against 4th placed Borac. With Borac in 4th place and trying to get a potential first ever spot in Europe, that match will be extremely tough. Borac's match on Saturday is at home against Smederevo (who are in 9th place with 33 points). Smederevo is also trying to avoid relegation and being tied with OFK in 10th place on points (but with a superior goal difference), they know a win would secure them 1st division football next year.

Here is a review of all the matches on Saturday:

Bezanija v Napredak

Bezanija will probably not put too much of an effort in this match. Napredak looked like they would return to the 2nd division, but with some strong recent form know that a win here will secure them a 2nd season in the top flight. Napredak are also still in the hunt for a potential spot in Europe, so 3 points here will be necessary. Napredak's last match of the seaon is a home match against Partizan and will probably hope that the league title is taken care of this weekend so that Partizan field a lesser side.

Cukaricki v Mladost Lucani

Cukaricki are currently in 6th place with 37 points with Mladost only two points behind with 35. Both sides know that a victory will keep them safe but a draw here could be problematic depending on the result. If Cukaricki win and Napredak lose, the would be in the driver's seat for a potential UEFA spot.

Partizan v Kula

This is clearly a must win for Partizan. Considering that Zvezda are right behind them, they know a win will put them one step closer to winning the league. Zvezda have the better goal difference, so if by any weird fluke the two teams finish tied on points at the end of the season, Zvezda would pip them for the title. Kula are currently in 7th place with 36 points, so if they could steal a point should be enough to keep them in the first division. If they lose, they could be in the relegation playoff spot.

Vojvodina v Banat

Vojvodina have nothing to play for, with them comfortably in 3rd place, this will be more or less a match to give their players some practice and to get the attention of the rest of Europe for the Summer transfer market. Banat would need to win this and their last match (against Borac Cacak) and a lot of other help to avoid relegation. If they've already given up, then this match will do nothing to affect the standings.

Borac v Smederevo

Borac would love nothing more than to win this match and to clinch at least a UEFA Intertoto Cup spot. This club has never reached a UEFA Club competition and this would be a real boost for the club (as we already know the first match a Serbian Club will face in the tournament will be another club from Greece). A win, along with a Napredak loss on Saturday will give them this, so expect Borac to go all out in this match. Smederevo on the other hand are trying to avoid finishing in 10th place and the Relegation playoff. They have been extremely inconsistent this season (mind you, so have all the clubs in Serbia), so this too is a must-win for them. They do have the better goal difference over OFK, so even if they do lose on Saturday, OFK have to play Zvezda (below), so they still might be in control of their destiny.

Zvezda v OFK

You have to feel for OFK. Many people had hoped that they would compete with Vojvodina for a UEFA Cup spot, but have been really been poor this season. They recently hired former Zvezda and Champions Cup winning coach Ljupko Petrovic to help them out. They played Partizan on Wednesday, lead after only two minutes, but gave up three goals before half-time and lost the match. Now they must play Zvezda in a must win for both sides. If Zvezda lose, they give up the title to Partizan. IF OFK lose, then unless Smederevo also lost, will be forced to play in the Relegation Playoff. Even a draw here might not be enough to help these sides. Most of Serbia will be watching this match and it should be quite a contest.

This has been an incredible season and the last two matches are proof of that. I'll give my impressions of Saturday's matches after they finish and we should see even more clarity of what the future holds for the 12 clubs of the Serbian SuperLiga.

On Wednesday FK Partizan comfortably won the Serbian Cup Final over 2nd Division Club Side, FK Zemum 3:0. With that win, FK Partizan win their first hard ware in over 2 years and their first Serbian Cup trophy. With their grasp of the title and a 3 point lead in the standings, Partizan will be in at least the UEFA Cup next season as either the Cup winner or 2nd place club.

If Partizan maintain their lead in the league with 3 matches remaining, their Cup winner Spot in the UEFA will be given to runner-ups FK Zemun. If FK Zemun do decide to register for the competitions, they surely will be only 2nd division side to participate in the competition. At this moment, it seems highly unlikely that the small club from Belgrade will actually register for the competition and this spot will hotly contested by the clubs in the 1st division.

If the season was to end today, Partizan would begin their European conquest in Early August in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League as a seeded side. Last year was a disapointing campaign for the Gravediggers who were suspended from the UEFA Cup after travelling fans caused problems. Partizan will want to shake off that problem from last year and focus on doing well and depending on the draw, they do have the potential of qualifying in the Champions League.

while FK Red Star Belgrade could still pip Partizan for the title, they know that they will be at least playing in the UEFA Cup next year, starting off in the first qualifying round. FK Vojvodina, even with their problems off the pitch will also be back in Europe as they too will be taking place in the 1st qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. Both Vojvodina and Red Star have the potential of at least reaching the 1st round but probably only Red Star can qualify for the group stage of the Cup.

As for the third club, it all depends on FK Partizan. If Partizan fall apart in the league and lose their grip on the title, they will represent Serbia in the UEFA Cup as the Domestic Cup winner, thus allowing the league's 4th placed team to take the 3rd spot. If Partizan win the league and FK Zemun register for European Competitons, then they will have that 3rd spot. As mentioned above, it seems highly unlikely that FK Zemun who are struggling to even stay in the 2nd divison, will participate as the cost of flying outside of Serbia might be too much for the side. With that, it allows a few clubs in Serbia to really have some incentive to play hard for the 3 remaining matches.

Currently the standings are as such:

1. Partizan 71pts
2. Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) 68pts
3. Vojvodina 56pts

Vojvodina will finish in 3rd and have ensured a spot in Europe, while Partizan and Zvezda could still swap spots.

But the rest of the league is pretty tight

1. (4.) Borac Cacak 40pts
2. (5.) Napredak 38pts
3. (6.) Cukaricki 34pts
4. (7.) Hajduk Kula 33pts
5. (8.) Smederevo 33pts
6. (9.) OFK 33pts
7. (10.) Mladost Lucani 32pts
8. (11.) Banat 28pts
9. (12.) Bezanija 17pts

While Bezanija are already relegated and Banat who can only finish with a maximum of 37 points every other club has the potential to play in Europe. In Serbia, the 10th place club is not automatically relegated but play against a playoff side from the 2nd division. With that, every club from 4th to 11th are still trying to avoid possible relegation.

Wednesday round 31 can really open up the relegation battle. The Schedule is as such:

(Home clubs first)

• OFK Beograd - Partizan,
• Banat - Crvena zvezda,
• Smederevo - Vojvodina,
• Mladost Lucani - Borac,
• Hajduk Kula - Napredak
• Cukaricki - Bežanija.

On Wednesday after these matches, I will take a look at the standing and discuss my views on what the last two games for each club could do to the standings.

The second half of the Serbian Domestic League began over the weekend and it began with quite a bang.

On Saturday in the famous Belgrade Derby, Red Star Belgrade managed to win convincingly 4:1 over Partizan Belgrade in front of an empty stadium and reduce the lead at the top. After having been penalized for fan violence back in December, Red Star took to the field against league Leaders Partizan without their huge fan support. It didn't seem too good when Partizan's Lazic gave his side the lead only after 3 minutes. Instead of taking advantage of the lack of home-support, Partizan failed to control this lead and gave up the lead in the 19th minute when Milovanovic would score. Castillo would give Red Star the lead at the 37th minute and would score again in the 2nd half. Milijas would score from the Penalty spot and three very important points.

While Partizan still lead over Red Star, the lead is now only 3 points. This was an important match for Partizan where a win would have all but promised them the title. With the loss, it puts a lot of pressure on Partizan as they can no longer afford another loss.

In other scores, Vojvodina, who have also been under a lot of pressure with the recent scandals in Serbia, failed to pick up points against Mid-table Smederevo. Vojvodina are still in 3rd place, but now drop 4 points behind 2nd place Zvezda. This should be the beginning of the pull-away for the top two. Vojvodina, if not penalized, should still be in control of a UEFA Cup spot as they have 10 point lead over 4th place Borac Cacak.

When you look at the standings, you'll see that there are quite of few races for spots in Europe and staying afloat. Partzian, Red Star and Vojvodina* all seem destined for places in Europe come August, but the chance the possible 3rd club reaching the UEFA Cup (all depending on who wins the League Cup) is fairly tight. The fact that only 5 points separates 4th from 10th (and relegation) will make the last 1/3 of the season extremely interesting. Bezanija will have to pray for a miracle to avoid relegation, but everyone else from 4th and below will have to pick up the pace to avoid the drop.

Chances are unless you live in Serbia or are of Serbian descent, you probably don't know too much about the Serbian Premier League. Well that's about to change. Here is our 'cheat-sheet' on the twelve (12) clubs that make up the MSL (Meridian SuperLiga). The list goes from the Winter-break standings, with the last place team mentioned first and the league leaders at the bottom. While the list doesn't give you information on players, it does give you a brief overview on where the clubs are located and a bit of their history. Chances are that if you're going to follow the league, you'll support team at the end of this article, but at least this way you get to see the variety in our small league.

As Mentioned above, the league has twelve clubs from all over Serbia. While the league does have clubs from various parts of the country, most of them play in or around the capital of Belgrade. While this makes sense considering that close to 2 million people live in the region (metropolitan), it does limit the oppertunity of fans from other parts of the country to see the bigger clubs in action. While Novi Sad, the 2nd largest city in Serbia also has a major club playing in the top flight, we can't say the same for the 3rd and 4th biggest cities of Nis (located in Southern Serbia) and Kragujevac (smack-dab in Central Serbia). Neither city has a club playing in the premier division and it has been that way for since 2003 when Radnicki Nis were relegated. These two cities both metropolitan pppulations over over 200,000 people, so it's a bit disapointing that neither have clubs playing the top division.

The league plays its season from Early or Mid-August until the end of May. The league stops for nearly two months from mid-December until mid-February as weather conditions are not suitable for play this time of year. Clubs, if they can afford it will conduct training in Cyprus, Turkey or some-where in Northern Africa or in the Mid-East.

In the past when the league was 14,16,18 or 20 clubs, each team would play each other twice and the team with the best record won the league title. Last year, when they reduced the league to 12 teams they tried out a two-tier league system. For the first half of the season, all 12 clubs played against each other twice, then after 22 games the league was split into two. The Top 6 clubs would play in the Play-Off Group, which essentially was for the title and a European Qualifying spot. The bottom 6 clubs would play in the Play-Out Group where the bottom two clubs would be relegated and the 3rd worst club would have to play in a play-off relegation series against a club from the 1st Division (technically the 2nd division).

For this season, they changed the format and went back to the standard single table. Each club will play each other 3 times for a total of 33 matches. The last match of the season is usually the League Cup final that is usually played in one Belgrade's two largest stadiums (Red Star's Marakana or Partizan's JNA). If one of those two teams reaches the final, they tend to play the match in the other's stadium to avoid home-field bias. It hasn't been since the 2000/01 season that both clubs played against each other in the final and that was also the last time the cup was played in the Marakana Stadium. The Cup is usually the best chance for the smaller clubs to win a trophy and has been won by two clubs outside of the big two.

Traditionally, looking only at Serbia, there are two big clubs, that being FK Partizan and FK Crvena Zvezda. In the past as Yugoslavia, there were four big sides. Along with Partizan and Zvezda you had Hajduk Split and Dynamo Zagreb who all fought for the league trophy. There might have been a big four, there were a lot of other competitive clubs from other parts of the country and the league was extremely competitive. Unfortunately, with the downfall of the country, the league suffered greatly. Since the break-up, Zvezda and Partizan have won every league title except for the 97/98 season when FK Obilic won the title. FK Obilic at that time was owned by Arkan (famous Serbian 'crime' figure) and it was alleged that the league titled was 'bought' that season. The club, was expected to become a big picture in the league, but with UEFA fines and the eventual death of Arkan, the club began to crumble and now play in the 2nd division. While the money was coming in for Obilic, they often were involved in the top three and did also finish runner up after winning the league. Partizan and Zvezda have afinished 1st and 2nd every season since the 2000 season. Most clubs are usually playing for 3rd and the chance at Europe. There have been clubs in the early part of the season that do keep pace with the two big-boys, but as the season winds down the pack just cannot keep up. Also, because of this domination, clubs that reach the final of the Cup often get a spot in Europe.

Well there you have a short overview of the league in general, now I present to you the Clubs of the Meridian SuperLiga.