Borac

OK Borac go into the Premijer liga season measuring themselves against sides from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, still chasing the kind of national silverware that has so far eluded them. Their closest brush with it came in 2018, when they reached the final of the Cup of Bosnia and Herzegovina and were beaten by OK Mladost. Within Republika Srpska itself the club has fared better, taking the regional championship twice, in 2011 and 2014.

Banja Luka knows the club as The Red-Blues, a nickname that simply follows the shirt, and home games are played in front of a crowd capped at around 4,000 inside the Borik sports hall. Borac sits within the wider multi-sport society of the same name, alongside a women's section, ŽOK Borac, which has recently worked its way into the Premier League as well.

The men's team traces back to 2001, and to the years of war that had already broken up the volleyball clubs Banja Luka once had, Rudi Čajavec and 13. maj. When Borac was put together on 13 July that year, it drew players from two other local sides, Vrbas and Sporting, and brought in others from Doboj and Modriča to fill out the roster.