(Sports) future of Serbia

For seven years, I worked on a series of shows called "Sports future of Serbia" on Serbian Radio and Television, which was dedicated to young, talented and successful athletes, the new hopes of Serbian sports. It was broadcast twice a month on Channel Two, not very regularly and not exactly at the same time.

In the shows, we met a new generation of champions who earned media attention with their results; we were able to get to know the conditions in which they train, go to school and everything that makes up the background of their sports successes. Young athletes, teenagers or, in sports categories, cadets, younger juniors and juniors, talked about how they started, what motivated them, how and how much they train, what their ambitions, wishes and plans are in the sport they play, what do they do in their free time, how do they balance school obligations with sports. The broadcasts were recorded on sports fields, fighting grounds, in institutions for testing and controlling health conditions, in places where they live and study or where they prepare for competitions.

Their coaches, selectors, physiotherapists, sports doctors and other experts talked about athletes and all aspects of sports activities in the broadcasts. We were able to find out how talents are recognized, what is the content of the training process, what is medical care and health control, psychological preparation and sports nutrition. Their parents, brothers and sisters, friends, professors and classmates completed the portraits of the young athletes with their stories. The goal of these shows was to get to know young talents with a chance to become famous sports stars in time, and find out how that status is reached.

A VAULT SEARCH

After retiring five years ago, I tried to extend the duration of these shows because the topic is inexhaustible, and the benefit (social, national, general) is permanent. I didn't succeed.

I started from my home, RTS, because I spent my entire working life there. From the moment when, as a European karate champion, I was invited by Ljubivoje Ršumović and Mila Stanojević Bajford to be the host of children's shows, then a series of school programs, the Belgrade program, and finally until I arrived in the editorial office of the Sports program, forty years have passed. With the experience of a top athlete and the title of meritorious athlete, in my journalistic work I considered it normal to present the rich world of sports in all its forms - from recreational to representative - and, as a media worker, to be of service and benefit to those who need media attention , as an incentive and as a confirmation that they are on the right path, and these are young athletes who have achieved their first great results.

Therefore, RTS said: "There is no problem if you find a sponsor, because we cannot finance it." I turned to the Olympic Committee of Serbia, whose work I have been reporting on for decades, sincerely believing that they will support a project that promotes Olympic values ​​and ideas. However, in their rich sponsor pool, they did not find any company ready to finance the "sports future of Serbia". After several meetings, I received a short message from the Sports Federation of Serbia, the largest sports association in the country, that "at the moment there are no opportunities for cooperation. Thank you for your understanding". Finally, the Ministry of Youth and Sports suggested that I contact Arena Sport because they, among other things, also finance them. Colleagues from the Arena said: yes, but you have to find a sponsor.

I addressed, unsuccessfully and directly, our reputable companies, known among other things for financing sports events.

In the end, I also knocked on the European door. I turned to Snežana Samardžić, the former Minister of Youth and Sports, who has been working in one of the European commissions for years, with a request to inquire whether there is any chance that one of those commissions would provide financial assistance to the youth. She inquired and sent me the answer that "it is generally considered that such projects of national interest are financed at the national level".

IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT COMMERCIAL

All this, as well as the anger that has been filling me for a long time, exploded in my head and soul these days when, after the terrible tragedies that happened to us, media content is widely discussed. Negative ones prevail, full of violence of all kinds, which, among other things, were most easily accepted by the youngest age group.

The young athletes about whom I made shows promptly posted them on their social networks and were overjoyed that their first junior medal at an international competition was not just short news, but caused real media attention. And some of them became famous: Dušan Mandić, water polo player, Nemanja Majdov, judoka, Tijana Bošković, volleyball player, the best in the world, basketball players Vasilije Micić and Vanja Marinković, Milica Gardašević, athlete, soccer players Andrija Živković and Predrag Rajković, Hamad Međedović, tennis player, Jovana Preković, Olympic karate champion...

I have the need to speak loudly about this because, it seems to me, I have done everything to convince media people and leaders of national institutions that such shows are useful and that they are not comparable to commercial content because their value is not measured by the money earned, but by the number of new young people members of sports clubs inspired by the successes of their peers.

By the way, the estimated budget for the series was around 1350 euros per show.

For years I have been trying to find on any television any show that educates, promotes, affirms, popularizes, for example, sports. But it's probably the hair in the egg I'm looking for, when it all went to hell. And that, with the creation of good media content for young people, is an extremely simple job, as well as tending the English lawn. It should be cut and watered regularly. And so for a hundred years.