Partizan Belgrade has withdrawn from the Serbian League playoffs in protest at the violence of their radical fans in the ABA League final, with teams from the Adriatic, who lost to Red Star in five games. The team trained by Željko Obradovic, who with this action intends to “eradicate basketball hooliganism”, had to play the semifinals of the domestic competition against FMP and the final could have been again against Red Star, who faces Mega.
In a statement, the club warns that in a possible new final between the two traditionally rival clubs, the serious incidents could be repeated. The altercations “caused interruptions of the matches, endangered the safety of the players and coaches, led to the partial or total closure of the pavilion, fines and embarrassment for Serbian and regional basketball before the entire basketball world,” the note said. .
With this decision, the club affirms that “it leaves space for the relevant factors so that until the start of the new season they make a decision that prevents similar things from happening again.” He recalls that both the club president, Ostoja Mihajlovic, and the coach, Obradovic, publicly criticized the irresponsible among the Partizan fans, something that “unfortunately, did not work”.
The club indicates that it does not want to “be part of the feasts of violent fans”, whether they are Red Star or Partizan fans. “We have well-founded suspicions that an eventual new final between Partizan NIS and Red Star MTS would be one more episode of destruction by violent fans and sending another horrible message to the world,” he said.
Partizan stresses that it wants Belgrade and Serbia to have two participants in the Euroleague, but warns that “with such behavior by some individuals and their impunity”, that wish can never be fulfilled.
The winner of the ABA league participates in the Euroleague, which this year is the Red Star, but an eventual participation of another finalist should have an invitation, which according to the Serbian sports press could be addressed to Partizan and Valencia, before the expulsion of Russian clubs.
Partizan stresses that Serbia is capable of organizing sporting events at the highest level, citing the recent EuroLeague Final Four in Belgrade. “The pavilion was full of Olympiacos fans followed by Red Star fans, four clubs in total, a large number of tourists in our city and not a single incident,” he noted.
“The conclusion is: Yes we can! And this is the image that we should send from Belgrade as the basketball capital of Europe,” reads the note. He also remembers that in the 20 years of participation in the Euroleague and the Eurocup in the games played in Belgrade there were no incidents like those of the five games of the ABA League final series.
