It's as if someone was jealous of everything that volleyball has brought to Serbian sports in the last 22 years, so he decided to drag it through the political quagmire as well. There are several interesting photos from the assembly of the Volleyball Association, which was held at the end of October in Belgrade. On one is a certain Simo Spasić, who has been appearing at various gatherings around Belgrade for years, waving some papers and presenting himself as the only fighter for the truth about the injured and missing Serbs in Kosovo. This is the man who was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of raping his ex-wife and cutting her hair with a knife, and who managed to "box out" the installation of a sheet in front of the House of National Assembly in Belgrade, on which are pictures of kidnapped and murdered Serbs from Kosovo and slogans on the criminal activities of NATO.
What does he have to do with volleyball and the assembly of the Volleyball Association? None, except that he presents himself in public as a lawyer for the people who disappeared and died during and after the war in Kosovo, and Kosovo was the topic that led to the scheduling of the session where it was supposed to decide on the dismissal of the president of the Association, Nenad Golijanin (68). , who was elected to that position by the same assembly just a few months ago.
Spasić appeared as a kind of "additional delegate", which apparently did not bother anyone, on the contrary. He appeared as a witness who was supposed to give additional arguments for the fact that Golijanin must be removed because he betrayed national interests, when he did not oppose the admission of Kosovo to the World Volleyball Organization, at the congress held in early October in Buenos Aires.
The second photo shows the harmony among the delegates at the moment of voting for the replacement, and it was made so that we can see all the raised hands and the somewhat surprised looks of Aleksandar Vlahović and Goran Pitić, who are sitting in the first row. They are turned to see what is happening behind them, as if they do not know in advance that the "thing" has been agreed upon.
Thus, for now, the express action of the institutions in the field of sports ends, which I guess was supposed to show that there must not be a crack at the state level when it comes to the attitude towards Kosovo, and that territorial integrity and sovereignty must be defended even then when it is obvious that there is nothing to defend, because it is clear to everyone what is happening. There is even an obligation of Serbia, as a signatory to the Brussels Agreement, not to prevent the southern Serbian province from joining various international organizations.
Two things are important in these events: first, volleyball, which for years brought only good news, like this summer when the girls won silver at the Rio Olympics, and the men's team won the World League, was pushed in the rudest way into the field of political games, which she managed to avoid for years. Secondly, the problem of Kosovo was used as an argument for reckoning in the field of work of sports organizations, although one has nothing to do with the other.
WHAT IS VOLLEYBALL IN SERBIA: Since the sanctions in the field of sports were lifted in 1994, in addition to basketball and water polo, volleyball is a sport that has brought more success to the former Yugoslavia and independent Serbia. Almost no year has passed without a trophy, first in the men's competition, and in the last decade also in the women's competition. Volleyball players from Serbia, in a continuity that did not exist before, won all possible medals at international competitions.
The men's national team was the only one that was not world champion, and the names of Nikola and Vladimir Grbić, Goran Vujović, Igor Miljković and others are known even by those who do not follow sports competitions. In addition to constant sporting success, volleyball was also decorated with organizational stability, which was symbolized by the long-time general secretary of the Association Slobodan Milošević and Aleksandar Boričić, who has been leading the European Volleyball Organization since last year, and before that he was the head of the Association since 1992.
Nenad Golijanin has been a kind of right-hand man to Boricic all these years and his arrival at the head of the volleyball organization was expected and planned at the moment when Boricic, the Alex Ferguson of Serbian volleyball, left to lead the European Federation.
So, there was a system that brought results at the representative level while the clubs were floundering, but they were still able to maintain themselves and produce new and new good players in both categories, who play in the world's strongest leagues and clubs. In the last twenty years, Serbia has become a world volleyball power, far surpassing the results of the former national team of the great Yugoslavia, for which both Boričić, as a player of Crvena zvezda, and Golijanin, as a player of Partizan, played.
The system that these two created, maintained and managed to save from major political upheavals and influences that destroyed many sports and federations, led to the fact that Serbia has one of the best volleyball schools in the world, that good coaches work there and that we have players who entered the World Hall of Fame, as recently was the case with Nikola Grbić, who thus joined his brother Vladimir.
If the Grbić brothers dominated on the court, then Boričić and Golijanin dominated at the level of maintaining volleyball as a sport in Serbia, managing to literally always ensure a good atmosphere around the team, but also an important place on the world volleyball map for Serbian volleyball. Can we even imagine that the president of UEFA is Slavisa Kokeza or Tomislav Karadzic?
WHO DOES DIRTY VOLLEYBALL: All of this is rather tainted by the political change of Goljanin. In a conversation with the "Vremena" journalist, he says that he is not bitter, but that he is afraid that everything that happened could harm volleyball in Serbia, and it is already harming it, because it is pushed into a negative context. "I didn't want to resign because I don't think I did anything wrong." I acted as my morals and the values I believe in dictated to me and I could not be a hypocrite," Goljanin adds.
He said at the congress that he could not support the admission of Kosovo to the international volleyball federation, but that he could not be against it either, because he believed that it was much more important than stubbornly insisting on a position that is political to allow some athletes in Kosovo who play volleyball to compete. Especially when it is taken into account that Serbia's insistence on "injustice" will not change the real situation that exists.
Golijanin, who worked as a volunteer in the Alliance and who does not seem like a man overly interested in the mechanism of the Serbian bazaar, obviously did not understand that such an attitude would cause an avalanche of negative comments, first in the Belgrade press, and then among people from the Alliance. He himself, as the president of the Association, ordered that the news about the admission of Kosovo be posted on the Internet pages of the Association, with his position.
What followed was an avalanche of accusations of betrayal, violation of national unity and backstabbing not only of colleagues and other "sports workers", but also of Serbs in Kosovo. Golianin's act was classified as an act of treason and the least that was expected of him was to withdraw himself from the head of the Alliance. "I didn't agree to that," he says, "because that would mean admitting I was wrong. I myself initiated the convening of the assembly and the vote of confidence, without even working on securing 'safe votes' for myself, because that is not the way I work."
In the forced and filled debate, various presidents of local volleyball, referee and coaching organizations appeared. All of them, and most of them are completely unknown to the public, stood up to line up after Goljanin, whom they had unanimously elected a few months earlier, and to "defend the principles". In addition to them, which further strengthened the arguments for Golijanin's dismissal, Vladimir Grbić, a legend and the first vice-president of the Association, joined in, explaining that Golijanin made a mistake by presenting his personal and not the organization's position at the congress.
When the journalist "Vremen" asked Grbić whether Golijanin violated any previous agreement or work regulations or exceeded his authority, Grbić said that it was enough that he expressed his personal position in a situation when he should have adhered to the position of the entire organization and of the state. "We didn't have meetings before his departure to the congress where we would agree on what he would say there, but with his attitude he caused damage to the Association, which has a significant influence in the world volleyball organization," said Grbić in a telephone conversation.
He claims that there is no politicization, but that everyone who acts for Serbia must defend Serbia's interests and act in accordance with what its interests are. In his opinion, the dismissal of Golijanin did not harm volleyball in Serbia and this sport will continue to bring medals from major competitions in the future.
WHAT HAPPENED "BEHIND THE SCENES": During his short time at the head of the Association, Golijanin made some changes in the work of this organization, which before that was successfully led by Boričić in his own manner. Golijanin tried to transfer his management experience and it is possible that in those minor reforms in the area of the Association's operations and working methods, relations with the referee and coaching organization, as well as local organizations, he caused disturbances that produced his enemies. It seems that they were just waiting for an opportunity to replace him and perhaps with the help of Vladimir Grbić, as an undisputed personality from the world of volleyball, to choose for positions that they would not have reached if Golijanin had stayed. He does not want to talk about those things, because he will still be in volleyball as part of OK Partizan and believes that he will return to the Association again.
Golianin's "arbitrariness", "media campaign" (as his "Politicians" interview was rated) and underestimation of his opponents led to his dismissal after only six months. Until the election of a new president, volleyball in Serbia will be managed by a working body composed of Vladimir Grbić, Bogdan Mamuzić and Petar Bogunović.
