There are only two days left until the first matches of the Euro Cup eight-finals. However, the status of one game is uncertain.
Last Monday, the draw paired Primorac and Jug.
The problem and the tensions surrounding Primorac’s home games against the Croats aren’t new and aren’t related to sports, yet European Aquatics hasn’t reacted in time.
Problem with long history
Since 2021, the Croatian clubs have refused to play in Kotor. Five years ago, the Municipality of Kotor renamed the pool in honor of Zoran Gopcevic (1955 – 2000), a great water polo player and Olympic medalist. But, according to Croatian sources, he committed war crimes while serving as a guard in the prisoners’ camp during the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Because of that, the Croatian clubs refuse to play there, and the Croatian Government supports that decision.
Last season, the water polo federations of Croatia and Montenegro and the Regional League Board reached an agreement. The solution was that Primorac would play home games against Croatian clubs at other swimming pools in Montenegro. Reciprocally, the Croatian clubs did not host Primorac at their swimming pools but in other Croatian cities.
However, Jug was the only of the six clubs involved to reject the compromise and insist on hosting all its matches in Dubrovnik. Consequently, the Regional League Board decided to cancel the game Jug – Primorac and award a 5:0 technical win to the Kotor-based team. But that match wasn’t very important, as it didn’t significantly affect the standings. Neither team had a chance to qualify for the Final Four.
European Aquatics decided on Sunday
On Sunday afternoon, European Aquatics sent the letter to the clubs with its decision that both matches between Primorac and Jug would be played on neutral fields – in Podgorica (February 25) and Zagreb (March 7), the capital cities of the two countries.
Unlike in 2025, Jug accepted European Aquatics’ decision and confirmed that it would host Primorac in Zagreb.
Primorac’s concerns and complains
The Kotor-based club issued a press release this evening. It expressed its concerns because it wasn’t allowed to play in front of its fans and said it would take new steps regarding this case:
VPK Primorac is a club with a long tradition, representing Kotor, Montenegro and European water polo at the highest level for more than a century. Our club has always been and will remain dedicated exclusively to sport, fair play and respect for international sports regulations.
The club’s position on this issue is firm and clear – we have the right to play a European competition match on our home field, in front of local fans, in a pool that is fully registered and licensed for international competitions. We believe that this right can be limited only on the basis of clearly established, objective and justified reasons, based on rules and evidence, which is not the case here.
VPK Primorac does not want to be drawn into any political discussions or be an instrument of anyone’s political views or pressures. In the past period, we have repeatedly, without success, addressed the competent authorities of European Aquatics with a request to resolve the problem that certain Croatian clubs have with the name of the city pool in Kotor, given that the name of the facility is not determined or decided by our club, but by the Municipality of Kotor which is the pool’s owner and manages the facility. The club has neither legal nor factual jurisdiction over the pool’s name. This matter must not be a reason to limit our club’s and our athletes’ sports rights.
In communication with European Aquatics, VPK Primorac explicitly stated that it guarantees the full safety of all participants in the event – players, professional staff, referees, delegates and spectators – in cooperation with the competent state authorities and institutions. To date, no specific security risk has been indicated, nor has any official report been presented that would call into question the organization of the match in Kotor.
Announcing what it has done and what it will do, Primorac said that the club:
- The club sent an official complaint to the competent authorities of European Aquatics, with a request for an urgent decision;
- The club prepared an urgent complaint to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, together with a request for interim measures;
- The club addressed the Ministry of Sports and Youth of Montenegro, the Government of Montenegro, the Municipality of Kotor, and the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, bearing in mind that this issue goes beyond the framework of sports and potentially affects a wider institutional and international context with consequences that are difficult to predict at this time.
VPK Primorac will fight for its rights and uphold the principle of equal treatment while preserving sports from political influence. We believe that sports should remain separate from politics, and that political issues must not be resolved through sports competitions or at the expense of athletes. We insist that water polo matches be decided on the field, in accordance with the rules and spirit of international sport.
The public will be informed in a timely manner about all further steps.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: total-waterpolo.com
