Darko Vlahović, the representative of the non-profit association that donated the study for the City Stadium project in Podgorica to the capital several years ago, accused the city's chief architect Filip Aleksić of abusing his official position and said that none of the two tenders for the conceptual design of the east stand of the stadium near Gorica could to contribute to the capital getting a football field that meets the highest standards of the umbrella football associations FIFA and UEFA.
"By abusing their position by organizing both the first and second competition, around 100.000 euros of public money was spent on local conceptual solutions that no serious company with references in the construction of football stadiums will respond to. Thus, another year was lost due to the arbitrariness and abuse of the position of the Chief City Architect, Filip Aleksić," said Vlahović to "Vijesta".
In 2016, the association "CREAM Montenegro PPP Alliance", the first to deal with the topic of public-private partnership, donated a feasibility study with a conceptual solution for the construction of the eastern tribune of the City Stadium to the capital city.
Four years ago, Vlahović signed the contract for a donation worth 300.000 euros with the then mayor, Slavoljub Stijepović.
In the meantime, the new administration, last year and in June, announced two contests for the conceptual solution, and Vlahović told "Vijesta" that the joint conclusion was never respected, that the contest be international, and that the city administration, after the failure of the first, when the second competition announced in June did not include the completed and officially submitted Study, but one of the working versions was part of the competition.
The Capital City did not answer questions from "Vijesti", among other things, about the nature of the competition - why it was not an international competition, but a national one, whether any of the members of the jury in both competitions could evaluate works according to UEFA standards, they also did not answer whether the authors of winning solutions have references when it comes to football infrastructure and UEFA standards...
"I managed to secure the donation of the necessary study, through my personal authority and long-term business credibility with prestigious international institutions and companies, as a personal contribution to my hometown. I would like to note that since September 13, 2019, when I submitted the study to the Capital City, the city administration has not responded to my numerous requests to receive the Capital City's Conclusion on the acceptance or non-acceptance of the document, despite the fact that I constantly received promises that I would receive an answer. I call on the new democratic government and its institutions to review all the processes surrounding the allocation of tens of millions of euros of money that the current government and the Football Association of Montenegro have given for football infrastructure. In this way, I want to offer all the help to the new institutions in hiring independent FIFA and UEFA experts who would make a professional and independent report on the construction and safety standards for the stadium in Cetinje, the stands in Berane and Nikšić...", said Vlahović.
Vlahović told "Vijesta" that he had good cooperation with the capital city, but that the problems started with the arrival of Aleksić as the city's chief architect.
"At the beginning of cooperation with the capital, we clearly reached a consensus that the entire process takes place through international tenders, to obtain the highest quality solutions, the highest quality partners and international financing. The interest of the capital city was to build the eastern tribune, which will not be financed from the budget and thus relieve the public finances," Vlahović said.
"On July 10, Filip Aleksić announced an international competition for an underground parking garage at Independence Square, unlike the Stadium project, which is a national competition and where the strict standards of FIFA and UEFA must be respected. I think that this best speaks of the good intentions of the Capital City that better quality solutions for the parking garage are more important than for the stadium and where 6.000 people need to be accommodated", Vlahović said.
He reminded that, before the adoption of the study, the international partners with whom he cooperates, who have experience in the realization of football infrastructure, proposed the preparation of a serious study, which would be the main driver of the project and a basic document for as many credible companies and financiers as possible to participate in all phases of the project , until construction.
"That the preparation of the study should be entrusted to serious international companies that have extensive experience in designing and building football infrastructure according to FIFA and UEFA standards," he said.
It was estimated that the preparation of the study costs between 200.000 and 300.000 euros, and since the Capital had no money, Vlahović provided a donation, and the document was prepared by the German company arenacom.eu.
"Which is signed by Mr. Tomaš Špek, a FIFA and UEFA expert on the security and construction of football stadiums, which has the greatest references and is one of the leaders in the design and construction of football infrastructure in the world," Vlahović said. The study was completed on September 13 last year and handed over to the Capital City, after which, he said, the conditions for announcing an international competition were met.
"On December 20, 2019, the Chief City Architect Filip Aleksić did not announce an international, but a national competition, without including the Studio in the competition, despite the conclusion of the Capital City that its placement is a prerequisite for the announcement of the competition. I met the representative of the Capital City about the remarks and received a promise that Aleksić would respond quickly, which never happened," he said.
At that competition, as announced from the capital on April 1, the jury "found that no competition work met the quality of the first prize, so it was decided not to award it".
"The UEFA standards were not respected in the received works, the functional solutions of the dressing rooms, the area behind the stands, the cafeteria are poor, and construction lines were trampled on," Vlahović said.
He recalled the statements of Aleksić at the time, who said that the jury judged that the work of Tamara Novaković, Nađa Pejović and Nina Ćulafić possessed qualities, that they were awarded the second prize, but that, after the jury opened the envelopes, it was determined that one member of that author's team in a business relationship with a member of the jury, that he did not know that they had applied for the competition, and that the jury decided to disqualify that team.
The works of the other two teams were bought for 1.500 euros each.
"After the competition ended, I stopped all cooperation with the capital city due to evident abuses of the capital city architect and non-reaction of the capital city", said Vlahović.
A new competition for the conceptual design of the eastern tribune of the City Stadium was announced on June 26, the competition is national again, and the jury, as announced, reviewed 10 conceptual solutions. The first solution was also chosen, for which the authors were awarded a prize of 20.000 euros. The total prize pool was 38.000.
Vlahović says that many things were not respected in the second competition, as well as in the first, and that additionally, in the second competition, a grandstand of 6.000 seats was requested.
"Which is more than strange for the reason that ten years ago in the tender, the Capital asked for 4.000 places, and the developer of the Studio proposed 3.972 places as the best solution. "After the Capital City's request that the Football Association of Montenegro insists that the east tribune with 5.000 seats be defined in the Studio, a request for 6.000 seats appears in the public tender," he said.
He also adds that in the text of the competition, in Article 17, it is written that the advertiser announces and conducts the competition in the Montenegrin language, and that in the attachment there is an unofficial (working) version of the Study, in English.
"The winning conceptual solution in the second competition is signed by authors and teams without any references when it comes to football infrastructure and UEFA standards," adds Vlahović.
Aleksić is one of the members of the jury in the second competition for the conceptual solution of the eastern tribune. The president of FSCG Dejan Savićević is among the members of the jury.
Vlahović said that he is aware that patriotism is a very current topic lately.
"Being a patriot does not mean that you have to be for the government, but to be for your people and your country, and the best way to express patriotism is to publicly reveal irregularities, theft and violations of the law to the detriment of your people and your country. For me, that is patriotism, not being for the government".
Project solutions do not meet all safety criteria
Vlahović recalled his experiences in designing the northern and southern tribunes, "where you cannot see part of the playing field from certain places".
"Also, those project solutions did not meet all the safety criteria for the direct participants of football matches. There is a well-known event from a few years ago where the visiting goalkeeper was hit in the head with a pyrotechnic device from the north stand," Vlahović said.
International companies are also interested
Vlahović states that, during the preparation of the study, they took a holistic approach to market research and promotion of the stadium project under Gorica through their international network since 2016.
"We have attracted the interest of several international companies that have prestigious references in the design, construction and financing of the largest club and national stadiums. We also discussed and affirmed the project before international financial institutions that could provide support for this project. We organized several meetings in Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, where we presented the project in direct conversations. We expressed interest and signed (LOI), letters of interest for participation in the Stadium project with many companies. "We also brought and presented to the capital city several international companies, which was noted by the Montenegrin media," Vlahović said.
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