News, news, news

I’m about to puke.
Dragan Mance passed away 31 years ago. Average Fan is about to have a quiet day with lighting a candle and remembering with old videos.
No way.
Average Fan opens the news feed and a railway carriage sized dung and garbage starts to flow. That’s all about having a quiet remembrance.
Let’s start with football.
The team’s management gathers together again, trying again to elect a president instead of the temporary Ivan Ćurković.
Rumours say that it’s been a done deal for a while, as the current management put vice president Milorad Vučelić to the presidental chair underhand. The election that is supposed to be held on 12th (or 14th) September is just a formality. Of course it’s not official yet, but more or less you can take it as a shoo-in. Mondo.rs tells about the other candidate Nenad Bjeković has no actual support after the current leadership discharged everyone who was about to vote for him. Ćirković just added, Vučelić would be a much better candidate than him. (Ćirković will surely not enter as a candidate this time.)

Let’s not try to find out what he got from the management for this declaration.

What really made my eyebrows raise was a half-sentence by Mondo saying that fans also support Vučelić against Bjeković. I’d really like to look into the eyes of these alleged fans (in case this rumour is not fake), and I’d like to see each and every one of them the certification from a psychiatrist (with stamp and signature) that they are all sane.

***

Aleksandar Džikić is rumoured to stand up from KK Partizan’s bench. The head coach has been weary of the continuous uncertainty, the pressure, but most of all of the double standards that have been used against Partizan lately. Sources mention Džikić has been considering this decision since when it came to light that there will still be a Serbian team in Eurocup.

Originally Partizan was this team, but the Serbian Basketball Association said that if Partizan entered the competition, the team would be excluded from the Serbian championship. Partizan finally decided to cancel entering the series - meanwhile they had enough troubles with FIBA as well - then they thought this newly founded basketball Champions League could be a kind of life-belt for the team.

And this team is not else than... FMP!
Thank you, Čoki, thank you, KSS!
I’m not surprised at all that it was too much for Aleksandar Džikić. It’s a miracle that he could bear it all until now.
What is more, the successor of Džikić was also mentioned. The press told about Miroslav "Muta" Nikolić as KK Partizan’s possible next head coach. Nikolić is currently the second trainer of the Serbian men’s national basketball team.

Miroslav Nikolić

(photo: zurnal.rs)

A slight blessing in disguise is that the basketball team signed another player, 22-year-old Stefan Pot, who already debuted in the team at a friendly pre-season game against Besiktas (Partizan won to 83:77).

Stefan Pot

(photo: mondo.rs)

That’s all for now.

***

And now stand up and salute silently for a minute.
Legends live. In our hearts, in our memories, on photos, in videos and on the walls of buildings.
Dragan Mance - † 03. 09. 1985.

(photo made by the author)

The day when 20 people were discharged from Partizan Youth Academy

Serbian news site Kurir.rs received a document signed by FK Partizan’s pork knuckle managing director Miloš Vazura. According to the document Vazura discharged twenty (20) people at Partizan’s Youth Academy by 30th June.
That Partizan Youth Academy that is well-known and well-acclaimed worldwide about their high level, high quality work, where such players started their career as Andrija Živković, Ivan Šaponjić, Aleksandar Mitrović or Lazar Marković - to name just a few from the recent past.
The discharged people are (non-exhaustive list):
Nikica Klinčarski, former winger of FK Partizan and the Yugoslav national team. Only Momčilo Vukotić wore the black and white striped jersey more than him.
Darko Tešović, FK Partizan’s player between 1993 and 1999
Zvonko Popović, played for FK Partizan in the 1980’s
Slađan Šćepović, played 121 times in FK Partizan between 1986 and 1992, scoring 22 goals
Miodrag Radović, played for FK Partizan 435 times
...and so on.
Upon Kurir.rs's information, the reason Vazura discharged these people - legends! - was because they supported Partizan presidental candidate Nenad Bjeković and not Ivan Ćurković, the candidate of the Vazura-Vučelić duo. (You can read more about it by clicking here.)
Here is the notice in question:

(source: kurir.rs)

Nothing is too expensive for Vazura when it’s about sticking to power. He is willing to sacrifice anyone and anything.
Just saying, Miloš, dude, there is a remedy for this. Both medicine and therapy. It’s never too late to ask for help. You need it badly.

News

Milorad Vučelić is the new president of Partizan sports society (also known as JSD Partizan).

I feel the same way as you now, dear Reader.

Former president Duško Vujošević’s mandate has been over, a new president, vice presidents and excecutive committe were elected. Due to rumours Vučelić was voted unanimously.
That Vučelić, who depraved the football team during his approx. 1-year reigning, who sold out the best players, who got Marko Nikolić discharged, who brought here Stefan Babović and Zoran Milinković, meanwhile the team reached its rock bottom, mostly morally, and is 17 points behind the team (I won’t say their name) that is leading the league table.
The vice presidents are Nenad Golijanin and Andrea Arsović.

I wonder who and how drew the otherwise successful sports shooter Andreja Arsović into it.

The members of the executive committee are Nenad Golijanin, Miloš Vazura, Zoran Popović, Vojislav Nedić, Miroslav Nedić, Mlađan Šilobad, Aleksandar Šoštar, Velimir Marjanović, Aleksandar Blagojević, Borko Drašković and Duško Jovanović.
You can really feel the mawkish fart-smell of the overlord/vassal/servant system.
Dear fellow fans and Grave Diggers, this is a very sad day in the 70-year-old history of Partizan.

***

Meanwhile the football players were taken to get flu vaccine, most probably to draw away attention from this shameful president election. Don't ever ask why young, healthy professional sportsmen need such a vaccine, but obviously Bel Medic private hospital needed some extra advertisement.

Team doctor Ilija Rosić heads the line giving a good example

Marko Jevtović is trying with optimisim, but it’s not easy to pretend you’re jolly when you’re not

...when it was Stevanović’s turn, the shiny happy mood was gone

Šaponjić looks a bit confused

Subić probably thinks that it was not included in his job description

Stevanović: "Hey, bro, do you know why it’s good for us?"

Grbić: "Dunno... I was told, if we were good, we’d get chocolate..."

(photos: partizan.rs)

Open letter of the editors of volimpartizan.net

Yesterday’s match blew the fuse for many fans. The editors of volimpartizan.net wrote an open letter, of which I try to write here the extract. The whole text (in Serbian) can be read here.
It’s quite long even this way, but it is worth to read the whole.

The editors of this homepage of Partizan fans feel the need to address the public and demand in the name of all loyal Partizan fans the immediate dismissal of the team’s management as well as the head coach.
We do it in the name of all fans who truly supports Partizan and who, in the light of previous results, feel hurt seeing all that happens on and out of the field.
What we see now is NOT FK Partizan. Bobek, Moca, Mance, Mijat and the still active Saša Ilić were not, is not fighting for this.

At this moment FK Partizan consists of a bunch of self-styled white-collars, who gave evidence of only their incompetence during their 9 months of reign. The leadership pushed the team on the verge of ruins, their functioning lacks every logical steps up to now. After selling Nikola Drinčić, Branko Ilić, Danko Lazović, Petar Škuletić and Aleksandar Mitrović as well as UEFA’s support for the Europa League there should be more than 10 million euros on Partizan’s bank account. From this money Partizan spent 0 (zero) euros to investment. At the same time they signed only players of free agents. The current leadership follows the policy of the previous one. We don’t even want to give any thought what will remain from the club after those who are currently in power.

The management made evidence of minimal competence during the summer and winter transfer season. As if they would have someone else’s interests in their minds instead of Partizan, as if someone, or someones would control the happenings outside of Stadion JNA. When the current leadership took over authority, Partizan was a serious team that needed only a little investment to be a successful club, even by European standards. Players put their heart out to the field, they were willing to die for the club and all of them understood the responsibility of wearing Partizan’s jersey. These all brought success.

Then came the new leadership and destroyed everything with a stroke of a pen, all that was built through the years before them: positive atmosphere, fellowship and winning attitude. During the winter transfer season they sold out half the team, and when after this (otherwise absolutely predictably) the first failures showed up, they immediately discharged Marko Nikolić. During the summer transfer season they sold out the other half of the club. The new ones were proven to be not better than reserve players. The question is now why the money, that these newcomers get as salary, could not be given to e.g. Danko Lazović, Branko Ilić and Nikola Drinčić? They all honestly had Partizan at heart, but the new leadership ruined them financially.

Then there is Zoran Milinković. We can’t not see the connection between him and the current management. Back then Vuk Rašović was discharged for the lack of good results (the former leadership did everything though for these not good results). Then came Marko Nikolić and it seemed he would pull the team out of chaos. Now we have Zoran Milinković. Since he’s been the head coach, Partizan has a 9-point-drawback compared to the eternal rival. We have only 2 points of advantage compared to the team on the 8th place - in the new championship system the 8th place is the lowest place to be still able to qualify to the play-offs. The question is, why does the leadership use double standars? Why can Zoran Milinković stay on Partizan’s bench? Why does he have support of the entire management? Or from now on the perfect head coach of Partizan will be only that person who watches without a word how the management destroys the team, without raising his word, as they sell out players?

Marko Nikolić was discharged after 3 draws - and these were matches he could not take part in as a head coach. With Zoran Milinković we lost the cup final, we were eliminated from Champions League, we lost at the eternal derby, producing the worst championship the past 25 years... as if the head coach would be giving the title to the eternal rival with one of his hands. And despite all he is still on Partizan’s bench. We demand in the name of all Partizan-fans the immediate discharge of Zoran Milinković as well as the resignation of the entire management led by Zoran Popović.

Currently Partizan is 3rd on the league table, which is inacceptable. It’s still September, but even now it seems we lost this championship. During the summer transfer season we could not sign one normal defender, midfielder and striker (only one left back arrived, but then it was already too late), that’s why we were eliminated from CL. The head coach forces the same tactics on every match, with the same players, while putting players in and out of the team without any logics, even those who performed well on previous games. For this reason numerous players are worn out, even though we didn’t even reach the middle of the autumn season.

Volimpartizan.net has certain informations in their possession that say, nobody wants to take on the position of Partizan’s head coach, because nobody would bear the pressure of the leadership for too long.

Some say, even Darko Milanič was asked to accept the position, but the veteran coach declined it without hesitation.

After we lost the eternal derby, Veljko Paunović’s name showed up as a possible new head coach. It finally didn’t happen, because due to Paunović he would not have been guaranteed that freedom he needs for his work. Nobody, neither young and beginner, nor older and experienced coaches want to accept the position. Behind it all there is one person, Miloš Vazura. He and Milorad Vučelić embody that ordeal Partizan is undergoing now, they are those who keep only their own interest in mind while not willing to guarantee the independence of the coaching staff.

Partizan is going through the worst crisis of their history, and there is only one solution for this: everyone who is responsible for this even just a bit, must immediately leave the club. The team needs a new start, with new people, until it’s not too late, until we can save this season, at least on the European level. That’s why we demand in the name of all loyal Partzan fans the instant discharge of the head coach and the leadership.

In this society filled with corruption, incompetence and injustice we call all loyal Partizan-fans. Don’t watch passively as your beloved club fall into ruins! Partizan will be 70 years old this year. It could survive this long only by your love and loyalty. Now the club needs you even more than ever, please, stand up for it, don’t let it get ruined! Let’s not allow to ruin all that fame, glory and honour that we built up during these 70 years. Changes are inevitable. Partizan can’t wait any longer. Partizan must wake up instead of falling into coma.

Grave Diggers, don’t let your beloved team down, don’t let their history and your love for them get ruined! Don’t let Partizan down!

New management of KK Partizan elected

I could have also gave the title "Nuclear bomb dropped".
In short: after Predrag Danilović resigned, the basketball team of Partizan elected the new team presidency. It has been an open secret for a while that his successor would be Partizan’s former, Minnesota Timberwolves’ current player, 29-year-old Nikola "Pekmen" Peković.
But the real shock brain haemorrhage surprise was not this.
It was the news that Duško Vujošević has (had to?) left Partizan’s bench.
Dear everyone, dear fellow fans and Grave Diggers, I think we can say that an era in KK Partizan’s history has ended.

We can also say that has been rumoured for a while, namely that party politics have wormed their way into the management of the basketball team.

Duško Vujošević’s successor is Partizan’s former player and second trainer, Petar Božić.

On the photo, from left to right: KK Partizan’s sports manager Dragan Todorić, Petar Božić and Duško Vujošević

(photo: kurir.rs)

The rest of the management is, as follows: KK Partizan's vice president as well as Peković’s general deputy is Miroslav Berić. Other members are: Sanja Lubardić, Maurizio Vallo, Milan Iskrin, Pero Šaranović, Ilija Dražić, Vladimir Vrbaški, Boško Janković, Ratko Čakarević, Velibor Jojić, Ivan Trifunović and Petar Grubor.

Berić (left) and Peković

(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)

Photo of the day

There was press conference as well, with the usual commonplaces.

It’s very hard to say anything now, being shocked, trying to get used to the fact that Duško Vujošević is not Partizan’s head coach anymore. (The fact that he stays at the club as advisor doesn’t make it any better.) You think back of all those victories, the long list of players who worked with him and who all play now at top clubs, in NBA, in the national team of their countries. (Think of Bogdan Bogdanović and Joffrey Lauvergne.)
In these moments "thank you" is just a superficial cliché. There's not enough "thank you"-s and gratitude in this world to express it.
Stand up straight and salute.
Now.

News from football fields and basketball grounds

Fofana might leave ul. Humska. News, that are not confirmed yet, talk about a Chinese football team that is interested in the Ivory Coast player. Rumours say, Fofana might get to them on loan, but if he is confident enough, Partizan might sell him.

I hope I’m not right, but this waste of such a talented player will strike back.

***

The new presidency has just been elected, but president Zoran Popović has already experienced disagreements with Ljubiša Tumbaković and Dragan Ćirić. The reason is Marko Nikolić, whether he stays or gets discharged. Newssite blic.rs says the Tumbaković-Ćirić duo is forcing to sign Ivan Tomić to Partizan’s bench, while the president stood up for Marko Nikolić. Some say, it is especially tragic because during the presidency election Marko Nikolić was lobbying for Tumbaković.

***

Milenko Tepić won’t be able to play tomorrow against Cedevita. Thank God his injury is not that serious, he really had just a brutal muscle spasm. Yet the problem is that there’s no substitue for him. Additionally, tomorrow’s match is crucial whether Partizan can qualify to the play-offs of Adriatic League.
Note: Partizan plays with Cedevita tomorrow at 17:00. SportKlub 1 broadcasts it live.

Football news

Partizan's leadership had a re-election of the board. Former president Dragan Đurić’s mandate expired. the assembly elected - allegedly - unanimously Zoran Popović as the new president of FK Partizan.

(photo: Facebook/Fudbalski klub Partizan)

Ljubiša Tumbaković, Milorad Vučelić and Vojislav Nedić were voted for vice-presidents. Tumbaković is in charge for sports-related issues and tasks, Vučelić is in charge for media-related issues, while Nedić is the legal expert.
The other members of the leadership: Milomir Gliorijević, Milan Obućina (main secretary of Sports Association Partizan), Srđan Cekić (CEO of Serbian Postal Savings Bank), Ivan Maričić, Dragan Bjelogrlić (actor), Nenad Janković, dr. Dragan Veljović and Vladimir Vrbaški.
General director of the club is 28-year-old Miloš Vazura, who worked in the Ministry of Justice until now. Dragan Ćirić got the position of the club’s sports director.
Fans aren’t impressed about the new leadership to say the least. Some even started to bury the club, while the creative minds of Grobarski Trash Romantizam expressed their negative feelings with this piece of art.

(image: Twitter/RetroPFC)

***

The Serbian Football Association discussed today the happenings at the match against Novi Pazar. The disciplinary committee punished Marko Nikolić with 3 months (!!!) of suspension. The trainer must also pay 300 000 dinar fee. The suspension came into force from 11th December, 2014.

All this because he was hit on the head with a firecracker.
Idiots.

***

Some sports sites reported that Partizan’s former, Voždovac’s current player, Stefan Babović might return to ul. Humska. It’s allegedly Marko Nikolić’s explicit request. There are no details yet, but some news mention the player mentioned it on his Facebook-profile.

Open letter from fans to the team management

Enough is enough. Partizan fans are fed up with the team management (not for the first time, and most probably not for the last time either). They published an open letter at partizan.net website, addressed to the management of the football section of Partizan. I do not translate the entire letter here (I'm too lazy - sorry -, and I still lack the proper knowledge of Serbian language for this task), but I write here the highlights. You can click here and read the entire letter in Serbian.

Fans say, in the past 5 years they witnessed the slow decay of Partizan (morally and financially). They are convinced, those people in responsible positions did not do even a stroke of work for the team. Partizan was dropped out of Champions League, but that's the least of problems. They write "such things happened and will happen, it's the part of sports". Their problem is that those people who could do something, just stay silent and watch things passing by, even those who do have the chance to raise their voices and protect the team to fall into ruins.

It's no secret Partizan's financial situation can be described with the words "catastrophic", "terrible" and "depressing". How on Earth is this possible, when the team received millions of Euros in the past years from selling players? Youngsters were sold out, but the income has disappeared. Employees of the club, players, trainers haven't received salary for months, the team owes millions of dinars to the Serbian state by not paying tax in time. Where did those Euro millions disappear?
Other than that, the stadium has been the team's possession since 1989. Nobody should come up with the excuse that it's impossible to place advertising spaces around the field, and that's the reason of not having enough advertisement incomes. This reasoning would make even chickens laugh.

Partizan president Dragan Đurić was arrested twice in the past months. Even though they say, his arrest has nothing to do with his presidental position, but has nobody really give any thought of how embarrassing it is for the club? Why has the management never had any assembly for this reason? We also cannot skip the fact that the team started to decay during Đurić's presidency. A lot of players, trainers and sports managers left the team because of him and his "friends". Do the management really think it's normal?

The marketing and PR-section also couldn't avoid the fans' (absolutely understandable) rage. Marketing director Snežana Filipović and PR-boss Biljana Obradović also got it all in the neck. Still nobody knows how they got to Partizan. Fans are so fed up with them that they ask the question: did the management hire Biljana Obradović to discredit Partizan? What was their intention with it all? Quoting them "these two persons discredits Partizan with their arrogant, ignorant and haughty behaviour". They are busy mostly with promoting themselves (did I understand well that they successfully abolished the so-called "mixed zone" that is prescribed by UEFA?), the marketing section can't even complete the most simple ticket selling. Fans say, they use so-called "Tesla applications", sometimes they don't even know the name of players, at press conferences they constantly interrupt those who are speaking. Does it all really not bother anybody?...

At long last someone rose their voice against these two. I got it that they are great for decorational purposes, but these positions both require devoted and hard work as well.

There is no transparency as well. Nobody knows the exact amount of money the club received for players, financial transactions are never published. It divides fans, the management's attitude is arrogant and the club has no main sponsor either.
The 2013/14 season had its serious marks on the team. It seems as if no one represents Partizan in the football association. What should happen for someone - anyone - to raise their voice and protect the team from moral and financial decay?

The fans make it clear, they respect those members of the management whose work the team's existence depends on. Yet they can't respect those members, so called "legends" and celebrities who stay around the club hoping to "get on the gravy train" instead of working. They ask a row of questions.

- Why is the management needed at all, when they function only as a "voting machine"?
- Why is there no tangible step for protecting the team from becoming unviable?
- If the management (allegedly) love Partizan so much - at least as much as they pretend it - then why are they just watching the team rotting without doing anything?
- If the situation is this very bad, then why don't they resign, either individually or corporally? Why are they still there at all?

Finally, the fans say, if they get no answers for these questions, they'll take the management as being the same guilty and responsible as president Đurić. They also make it clear, there's nobody, person or organization behind them, and their only motivation for this letter was their love for Partizan.

***

As an addition for this letter above, today was the day when it was enough for the players as well. Serbian sports website mozzartsport.com says, players and coaches haven't received a single dinar for 4 months now, so Saša Ilić went to meet the management and talk to them about the finances.
Then, as he walked out of the building, he just had a short sentence for the journalists waiting there, "There's no money."
Well, yes. There's no money and only the Divine Force up there knows when they'll get any next time. Daily newspaper "Sport" reported, the management couldn't even make just a slight promise about the earliest date when the players and coaching staff can hope for salary. The last money transaction on the team's account was allegedly around Easter. Since then nothing. Not just for the players but for the club employees either.