FK Novi Pazar waited ninety-eight years to play in European competition for the first time in the club's history. The club was formed in 1928 under the name FK Sandžak, a reference to the wider Sandžak region, whose predominantly Bosniak Muslim community still shapes the club's identity today. The team adopted its current name in 1962, following a merger with local side FK Ras.
For most of its history, Novi Pazar remained a regional club, competing in the lower leagues of the former Yugoslavia, with one of its notable early achievements being a second-place finish in the Second League, East Group, in the 1984/85 season, earning promotion to a higher division. The real breakthrough came only after Serbian football became independent - in the 2011/12 season, the club reached the Serbian SuperLiga for the first time in its history, benefiting from the withdrawal of Belgrade side BASK from the competition. After a brief relegation in 2017, Novi Pazar returned to the top flight in 2019 and has steadily strengthened its position among the country's elite ever since.
A historic milestone came in the 2024/25 season, when Novi Pazar finished third in the SuperLiga table - the highest league position in the club's nearly century-long history - securing a first-ever place in European competition. In the summer of 2025, the team made its debut in Conference League qualifying, facing Poland's Jagiellonia Białystok in the second qualifying round in front of a full house at the City Stadium in Novi Pazar. Known as the Plavi (the Blues), the team is supported by three fan groups - Ekstremi, Torcida Sandžak and Ultra Azzurro - which have for decades created one of the most recognisable stadium atmospheres in Serbia.