The first man of Partizan, Ostoja Mijailović, wants the “eternal” rivals to play together in the Euroleague.
At the meeting of the Euroleague owners’ clubs, where a discussion was also expected about the licenses of Crvena zvezda and Partizan, no epoch-making decision was made. That is why the “eternal” rivals still have to wait and “bite their nails” ahead of the next season of the elite European competition to which they are ove sezone mnogo dali. Partizan achieved 20 victories and advanced to the quarterfinals, Red Star was close with 17 triumphs, and no words should be wasted on the fan spectacles and promotion of the competition.
That’s exactly why the president of Partizan Ostoja Mijailović believes that both clubs should be permanent participants in the Euroleague and he believes that it would certainly reduce the tensions between the eternal ones, he assessed as a guest in the morning program of RTS.
“Sport is a science, but there is something called luck, a situation you cannot influence… My position as the president of Partizan is clear: I want both clubs to play in the Euroleague for many years. Serbia deserves that. Look at what Belgrade gave European basketball. Of all the countries in the Euroleague, Serbian representatives have 37 victories. Only Spanish clubs have more. Greece, Turkey and other countries have fewer victories than Zvezda and Partizan combined. We have broken the barrier that we do not have the conditions to compete. We have fans, coaches , players, teams…”Mijailović explained the reason why the Euroleague should believe in the “eternal”.
“We are rivals and we cannot love each other, but we must respect each other for the sake of Serbia and national basketball. Here in Serbia, when you look, even Novak Djokovic, the greatest Serbian athlete and one of the greatest athletes on the planet, says that the first sport in Serbia is basketball. And it is not a great luck for the star players that Partizan’s team does not play in the Euroleague, nor vice versa”.
While waiting for the decision of the Euroleague, Partizan launched a campaign in which, with the help of fans, it wants to collect money in order to pay off a large tax debt to the state of Serbia, which amounts to seven million euros.
“Yesterday, we collected 500,000 euros for taxes. The action was initiated by the fans, I was in a dilemma whether to accept that invitation, but we carried out a lot of actions and we decided to accept in the end. Each of us who sits on the Board of Directors will pay 100,000 euros and that way we will collect almost a million euros. I have to thank the state for its patience, we have to repay the state if we ask for anything, but we had obligations that we had to pay to the players, coaches, clubs… We got rid of that debt and we want to return the entire tax debt and then be able to have a normal budget. We were disturbed by the corona year when we could not sell tickets, which damaged us by four to five million euros.”concluded the president of Partizan.
(WORLD)