One of the most decorated water polo clubs in the world Partizan has been passing through serious crises in the last few years. Problems are piling up. In December, the club’s management split up on two parts. Aleksandar Sostar, who was Partizan president for years, was dismissed, as well as the president of the Assembly Zoran Avramovic. For months, the two have been saying that the decisions made at the club’s Assembly held in December weren’t valid and that they ask a new Electoral Assembly. Sostar also say that he is ready to legally leave the club and bring new people in the club’s management, the people who will be able to help the club to come out of the crisis.
Today, several celebrated Partizan’s water polo players, including Filip Filipovic, Slobodan Nikic, Zivko Gocic, Milan Aleksic, demanded the resignation of the club’s management, which is, as they stated, responsible for ruining and degrading the club’s reputation. They are requesting an extraordinary assembly.
The players’ open letter:
“For years, Water polo club Partizan has been collapsing from a club that was synonymous with success, the highest quality school that is recognized and appreciated around the world, a nursery of talents among players and coaches, becoming a place where one does not go with pride.
In order not to leave the club with only names and to continue destroying everything that has been created by generations and generations of players and coaches for decades, we, the undersigned, felt obligated to make a public announcement and convey our request to the club’s management.
We have watched in disbelief for years as the process of degrading the club unfolds before our eyes, feeling powerless to change anything in the hope that people will be found who will stop the decline and who will really work in the interest of the club aware of the responsibilities of working in it. However, this has not happened to date.
Outraged by the current situation in the club and how the people responsible for it treat the whole situation, we realized that the club is run by those who do not understand its importance in Serbian sports, but also its importance outside our country. So, we decided to gather and react.
The pool did not work continuously for five months, which made it impossible for the first team, as well as the junior and youth teams, to train in the pool in Banjica. During that time, the club’s management failed to find a solution to provide the minimum conditions, even to provide training in any other pool, so that the work would not be interrupted.
The treatment of players, coaches, and parents of children who train at the club are unworthy of the club’s name, and the result of such a relationship between the club’s management is the departure of a large number of players (of all ages), with which no one in the club, probably except the management, can come to terms. How alarming the situation is it’s shown by the fact that Partizan has about 70 children now. Earlier, more than 800 boys and girls used to train at the pool.
All of us individually who are the signatories of this request have incorporated a part of ourselves into this club, grown and matured in it and helped the club reach the highest achievements in our sport, in terms of results. There have always been problems in the club itself, but never to this extent. That is why turning head to the other side is not an option for us from now on and in the future.
In accordance with all the above facts, we can only demand the immediate resignation of all people in managerial positions in the club and the announcement of the extraordinary Assembly of the club. According to the second-instance verdict confirmed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, we support the introduction of the club into legality and believe that only Zoran Avramović is the valid president of the Assembly of VK Partizan. We ask that the Assembly be scheduled as soon as possible given the seriousness of the situation in the club.
This is just the first step in the process of starting the recovery of the most trophy-winning club in history.”
Signatories:Zivko Gocic, Slobodan Nikic, Milos Korolija, Milan Aleksic, Filip Filipovic, Stefan Mitrovic, Milos Cuk, Nikola Kuljaca, Dusan Mandic, Nikola Jakisic and Slobodan Soro.
