Eleven Olympic and European champions have refused to play for Serbia for as long as the current leadership remains in charge of the Federation. The head coach has resigned. The Serbian water polo public, fellow athletes, and the broader sporting community have all lined up behind the players.
Almost no one has publicly defended the Serbian Federation. But it appears there is one person who understands them and is open to cooperation, coming from a direction few would have predicted.
According to information obtained by Total Waterpolo, Perica Bukic, Executive Vice-President of the Croatian Water Polo Federation, sent an email to the leading Croatian clubs informing them that he had recently met Aleksandar Sapic in Zagreb. he topic of the meeting was a possible new joint regional league between Croatian and Serbian clubs. Bukic asked the clubs whether they would be willing to take part.
In his email to the Croatian clubs, Bukic wrote:
“Recently I had a meeting in Zagreb with Sapic and Sostar regarding a possible joint league… as you know, Sapic has recently taken over the Serbian Water Polo Federation. He asked me to come down to Belgrade and sit down to discuss this topic”
The format proposed is reportedly identical to the one currently used in the VRL Premier, with 8 clubs playing. The key difference is the absence of Montenegrin clubs, with Bukic noting in the email that Montenegro could potentially be included in the coming years, alongside the possibility of inviting Hungarian clubs.
This raises several questions.
1. Why do most media reports continue to refer to Slobodan Soro as President of the Serbian Water Polo Federation, when even Perica Bukic acknowledges in writing that Sapic has taken over the federation?
2. What is the future of regional water polo when the discussions are being held between one of four vice-presidents of one federation and an assistant club coach who holds no formal position in the other?
3. Why is Bukic now seeking the opinion of Croatian clubs on joining a joint league, when a year ago he himself decided that Croatian clubs would not participate in the newly formed VRL? According to information available to Total Waterpolo, the majority of Croatian clubs not under Bukic’s direct influence are not inclined to enter into any form of cooperation with someone as unpredictable as Sapic.
4. Bukic and Sapic, both former great water polo players and now less successful politicians, sit on opposite sides of the region’s political, ideological, historical, and symbolic dividing lines. Why, then, are Sapic’s nationalist positions not an “open issue” for Bukic, on the same level as the name of the swimming pool in Kotor once was?
5. The proposal includes the possibility of inviting Hungarian clubs at a later stage. Does this indicate that Bukic and Sapic are aiming to build a competition that would, in time, rival the European Aquatics Champions League?
6. And finally, the most important question of all. How can anyone offer support to Aleksandar Sapic after his repeated conduct toward players, coaches, and the broader water polo community?
Given that this newly discovered understanding has already borne its first fruit, namely the transfer of Zoran Bajic to VK Novi Beograd, what comes next will be worth watching closely.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: total-waterpolo.com
