FK Vardar () is a professional football club based in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, which competes in the Macedonian First League. It is the most successful football club in football in North Macedonia, that has won twelve Championship titles, six Macedonian Cups, two Macedonian Super Cups and one Yugoslav Cup. In 2017, it became the first Macedonian club to qualify for the group stage of a European competition.
History
Vardar was formed in 1911 as Sports Club Vardar. In the beginning of 1912 it was registered and started to play matches until the war break (1914–18). In 1918 when the British and French entered Skopje they introduced sports activities including football. In 1919 Vardar started to compete again in the Skopje division, winning two championships in the first years of the 1920s, 1922 and 1923. In 1924 Vardar merged into Gragjanski, taking all the players and the coach to the newly made club including Vardar's city park ground. Gragjanski won three subdivision championships in a row 1936, 1937 and 1938. In 1926 Vardar was re-established by former players and continued to compete. During World War II, in 1941 Vardar merged with Gragjanski, Jug Skopje, Sparta and Slavia to form FK Makedonia, who started competing at the first federal championship in 1945. Next year the Macedonian Republic League was formed and the national team won the league as FK Makedonija.
First Federal League
After World War Two, FK Vardar was established with the merger of city rivals FK Pobeda (1919) and FK Makedonija (1922), in the hall of cinema "Vardar" on 22 July 1947.
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Rank
!Club
!G
!W
!D
!L
!GF
!GA
!GD
!P
|-
|11
|align="center" |FK Vardar
|1041
|343
|252
|444
|1249
|1528
| −279
|933
|}
In their history, FK Vardar has had many memorable matches. The first big one came in 1961 against Dunfermline from Scotland, victory at home ground 2:0 glorious moments in Cup winners Cup. Among those, the one that stands out the most was defeating FK Partizan by a score of 5–0. In early history, the 2–1 victory over Varteks in the Yugoslav Cup final is remembered by the club as its first major trophy win. A game that had the highest attendance was a matchup against Trepča where FK Vardar won 2–1 and earned promotion to the Yugoslav First League. Other matches to remember came against the great four Red Star Belgrade, Partizan Belgrade, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. Then 1985 home ground victory over Dinamo București from Romania 1:0 in UEFA Cup competition.
New Age 1st league
thumb|right|200px|Stefan Spirovski, who played 56 matches and scored 6 goals for FK Vardar
Vardar celebrated Macedonia's independence by winning three consecutive titles including going unbeaten in the inaugural season. During the 90's they remained at the top of Macedonian football reaching five Macedonian Cup finals and winning four. After a lean spell by their standards, they brought the league again in 2001–02 and the following season just missed out on qualifying for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League group stage. A remarkable achievement, in the Second qualifying round they eliminated CSKA Moscow and came within a goal of getting past Sparta Prague. In 2011, Vardar was originally relegated from the Macedonian First Football League, but after buying the license from Miravci it stayed. The following season they brought the league again after nine years. To date they have 17 major honors to their name. In 2012, with the new transformation, FK Vardar became the first team in Macedonia (now North Macedonia) organized as a joint stock company incorporated under the Companies Act.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Rank
! Club
! G
! W
! D
! L
! GF
! GA
! GD
! P
|-
| 1
| FK Vardar
| 768
| 439
| 180
| 149
| 1428
| 651
| +777
| 1438
|}
Memorable moments
thumb|250px|Hof Hambardjumian
At the beginning of the Macedonian First Football League the most memorable matches were all the wins against rival Pelister, including the first-ever Macedonian Football Cup final in 1993 where FK Vardar won 1–0 at the old City Stadium. The biggest international achievement of the club came in 2003 when FK Vardar came one goal short of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stage. and won the second leg in Strumica (3–1), with the goals of Boban Grncharov, Tigran Barseghyan and Boban Nikolov. In the third qualifying round, Vardar was played against Danish side F.C. Copenhagen, they won first leg at the home in Skopje (1–0), with the goal of Jonathan Balotelli.
In the second leg in Copenhagen, Vardar had a result which would lead to the play-off round of Champions League, but in last 15 minutes, Copenhagen scored two goals, and Vardar lost the match (4–1), and its eliminated from the Champions League.
200px|thumb|left| Darko Velkovski
:But, the participation in the European competitions in that season Vardar continued in the Europa League play-off round, in whom were drawn against Turkish giants Fenerbahçe. Surprisingly, Vardar won both matches against them, in the first leg in Skopje won 2–0, with the goals of Barseghyan and the bizarre own goal of Mehmet Topal, and in the second leg in Istanbul 2–1, with a goals of Jaba Jighauri and Nikola Gligorov, and Vardar qualified for the group stage of the Europa League for the first time in its history and became the first Macedonian club to qualify for the group stage of a European competition. In the group stage, Vardar were drawn in Group L against Zenit Saint Petersburg, Rosenborg and Real Sociedad. In the debut match, Vardar were outclassed by Zenit in Skopje (0–5) and lost the match in Trondheim against Rosenborg (3–1), but was scored first goal in the group stages of European competition by Juan Felipe. In third match Vardar was again trashed by Real Sociedad at home (0–6), which was a highest defeat in the European competition matches.
However, FК Vardar later won a historic first point in European Cups with a 1:1 draw in the home match against Rosenborg BK.
250px|thumb|Tigran Barseghyan
Grounds
City Park Arena
The City Park Arena with a capacity of 36.011 spectators, it ranks among the 10 biggest stadiums in the Balkans. The field is of 105 x 68 m dimensions. There are two big boards that are located on the east and west sides, size 18 × 6 m. The arena has 494 VIP seats and 386 seats for the media on the northern stand. 80% of the space in the arena is sheltered in case of bad weather. The arena is a multifunctional sports facility located in Skopje, North Macedonia. It is named after singer Toše Proeski and is mostly used for football matches. On 25 July 2012, one of the most visited matches of FK Vardar against FC BATE Borisov was played in the second qualifying round of the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League. The west stand is known by the Komiti, FK Vardar's most faithful fans.
National Arena Toše Proeski was the host of 2017 UEFA Super Cup, Macedonia's first UEFA club competition final.
thumb|300px|Home Ground
Supporters
thumb|250px|The flag of FK Vardar
FK Vardar supporters are known as "Komiti". Komiti are the first organized supporters group of Vardar and they were founded on 4 June 1987 in Skopje, at the match between FK Vardar and Red Star Belgrade. It owns 15% of the club through an association.
thumb|Komiti in 2023 with scarves on the stadium
Rivalries
Eternal Derby
The fixture between Vardar and FK Pelister is the biggest and most violent match in North Macedonia. An important aspect of this match-up is the intense rivalry in the Macedonian tifo scene between the supporter clubs Komiti and Čkembari. The rivalry began in the season 1989–90 at a match in Skopje, between FK Vardar and Red Star Belgrade. A conflict occurred between the "Skopje fans" and a few "Bitola fans" who went to cheer for FK Vardar, who at that time was the most popular Macedonian football club in the former Yugoslavia. On 8 March 1991 in Bitola, FK Pelister and FK Vardar met in the Yugoslav second league and the first incident occurred. From that day forward, started the big rivalry between Komiti and Čkembari along with the Vardar–Pelister match becoming the eternal derby. In recent years the rivalry wained slightly in importance as FK Vardar stopped being as competitive.
Honours
:Legacy titles: SK Vardar, Pobeda Skopje, Gragjanski, Makedonija
- 1922, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1946, 1947
Domestic
- Macedonian First League
- Winners (12): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2019–20, 2025–26
- Macedonian Football Cup
- Winners (6): 1992–93, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2006–07, 2024–25
- Macedonian Republic Cup
- Winners (12): 1955–56, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1991–92
- Macedonian Football Supercup
- Winners (2): 2013, 2015
- Yugoslav Cup
- Winners (1): 1960–61
European
- Balkans Cup
- Runners-up (2): 1972, 1974
European Competitions
300px|thumb|[[Filip Gačevski]]
FK Vardar's first competitive European match was a 0–5 loss against Dunfermline Athletic in the 1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup. Muarem Zekir holds the record for most appearances in Europe for the club with 21. Top scorer in UEFA club competitions is Wandeir with 13 goals. The biggest win in UEFA competition was against Ethnikos Achna FC in the 2004 Intertoto Cup defeating them twice by the score of 5–1 and 10–2 on aggregate.
thumb|300px|FK Vardar in Saint Petersburg against FC Zenit on 23 November 2017
FK Vardar became the first Macedonian club to qualify for the group stages of a European competition, after beating Fenerbahçe S.K. in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League playoffs.
Notable wins
{| class="toccolours" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="left" style="margin:0.5em;"
|- bgcolor=#CADCFB
! Season
! Match
! Score
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#EFEFEF |Champions League / European Cup
|-
| align="center" | 2003–04
| align="left" | Vardar – CSKA Moscow
| align="center" | 2–1
|-
| align="center" | 2017–18
| align="left" | Vardar – Malmö FF
| align="center" | 3–1
|-
| align="center" | 2017–18
| align="left" | Vardar – F.C. Copenhagen
| align="center" | 1–0
|-
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#EFEFEF |Cup Winners' Cup
|-
| align="center" | 1961–62
| align="left" | Vardar – Dunfermline Athletic F.C.
| align="center" | 2–0
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#EFEFEF |Mitropa Cup / UEFA Cup
|-
| align="center" | 1968–69
| align="left" | Vardar – LASK
| align="center" | 2–1
|-
| align="center" | 1968–69
| align="left" | Vardar – Cagliari Calcio
| align="center" | 1–0
|-
| align="center" | 1968–69
| align="left" | Vardar – Cagliari Calcio
| align="center" | rematch 1–0
|-
| align="center" | 1985–86
| align="left" | Vardar – FC Dinamo București
| align="center" | 1–0
|-
| align="center" | 2017–18
| align="left" | Vardar – Fenerbahçe S.K.
| align="center" | 2–0
|-
| align="center" | 2017–18
| align="left" | Vardar – Fenerbahçe S.K.
| align="center" | rematch 2–1
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#EFEFEF |UEFA Conference League
|-
| align="center" | 2025–26
| align="left" | Vardar – FC Lausanne-Sport
| align="center" | 2–1
|-
|}
Regional Competitions
{| class="wikitable"
! Season
! Competition
! Round
! Club
! Home
! Away
! rowspan=18|
! Aggregate
|-
| rowspan=3|1964–66
| rowspan=3|Balkans Cup
| rowspan=3|Group A
| Spartak Plovdiv
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–3
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–4
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center" rowspan=3| 4th out of 4
|-
| Farul
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–4
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–1
|-
| Olympiacos
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 2–2
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–1
|-
| rowspan=3|1966–67
| rowspan=3|Balkans Cup
| rowspan=3|Group B
| AEK Athens
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 1–1
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–1
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center" rowspan=3| 4th out of 4
|-
| Lokomotiv Sofia
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–3
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–4
|-
| Farul
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 4–0
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–2
|-
| rowspan=3|1967–68
| rowspan=3|Mitropa Cup
| R16
| LASK
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 2–1
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 0–0
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 2–1
|-
| QF
| Cagliari
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 1–0
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 1–0
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 2–0
|-
| SF
| Spartak Trnava
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 2–2
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–2
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 3–4
|-
| 1968–69
| Mitropa Cup
| R16
| Admira Wien
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 2–2
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–3
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 2–5
|-
| 1969–70
| Mitropa Cup
| R16
| Vasas
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 2–3
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 1–1
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 3–4
|-
| rowspan=3|1971–72
| rowspan=3|Balkans Cup
| rowspan=2|Group A
| Kavala
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 5–1
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–1
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center" rowspan=2| 1st out of 3
|-
| Shkëndija Tiranë
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 1–1
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 1–1
|-
| Final
| Trakia Plovdiv
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 4–0
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 0–5
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 4-5
|-
| rowspan=3|1973–74
| rowspan=3|Balkans Cup
| rowspan=2|Group B
| Partizani
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 2–0
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–2
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center" rowspan=2| 1st out of 3
|-
| Larissa
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 7–0
| style="background:#ddffdd;text-align:center"| 3–0
|-
| Final
| Akademik Sofia
| style="background:#ffffdd;text-align:center"| 0–0
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–2
| style="background:#ffdddd;text-align:center"| 1–2
|}
Rankings
UEFA Ranking
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Rank !! Country !! Team !! Points
|-
|416||||Mons Calpe S.C.||1.158
|-
|417||||FC Struga||1.100
|-
|418||||FK Vardar||1.100
|-
|419||||FK Rabotnichki||1.100
|-
|420||||Atlètic Club d'Escaldes||1.033
|}
Club world ranking
<small>As of 11 September 2025</small>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Rank !! Team !! Points
|-
|rowspan=5|459||align=left| Al-Khaldiya || rowspan=5|59.00
|-
|align=left| Plaza Amador
|-
|align=left| Auckland City
|-
|align=left| The Strongest
|-
|align=left| FK Vardar
|-
|}