Ministry of Sports and Youth: The Basketball Association should look for the culprit in its ranks

The Ministry of Sports and Youth of Montenegro reacted to yesterday's announcement by the Basketball Association of Montenegro (KSCG), which states that the women's senior basketball team will not participate in the pre-qualifications for the World Cup.

KSCG stated yesterday that the reason is that the Minister of Sports, Dragoslav Šćekić left them without the promised money for preparations.

We transmit the Ministry's announcement in its entirety:

"On July 12, the Basketball Association of Montenegro, i.e. the President Jelena Dubljević, went public with the information that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Sports and Youth Dragoslav Šćekić is responsible for the fact that the women's senior national team will not go to the pre-qualification tournament for the World Cup.

For the sake of truth, the Ministry of Sports and Youth is obliged to address the public, in order to respond to the untruths and possible doubts with the truth, and to clarify everything that is unclear, both to the public and to the Basketball Association.

Since the appointment of Mr. Dragoslav Šćekić to the post of Minister of Sports and Youth, the cooperation with the Basketball Association of Montenegro has been correct, and his personal desire, as well as everyone in the Ministry of Sports and Youth, that the situation in Montenegrin sports is on an upward trajectory is reflected in this year's record budget intended for sports associations and a series of initiated and realized projects in the field of sports.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Sports and Youth increased the budget of the Basketball Association of Montenegro by 30 percent in this year's distribution of funds to sports associations, which best confirms the attitude of Minister Šćekić and the Ministry towards this association.

The answer to what the mentioned funds were used for and which competitions the Basketball Association of Montenegro considered to be a priority in terms of funding, are best known from the Basketball Association.

If the president of the Basketball Association prioritized sending our best basketball players to the pre-qualification tournament, as far as finances are concerned, she already had those funds through the aforementioned increase. Why the president does not consider the pre-qualification tournament for the World Cup a priority is a question that only she knows the answer to.

Also, in addition to the minister's legal obligations, he himself, often in cooperation with other colleagues from the Ministry and the Government, used acquaintances to secure additional sponsors for this and other associations.

It is symptomatic that the sponsors, at the mention of the leadership of the Association, showed disinterest in sponsoring the Basketball Association, headed by president Jelena Dubljević.

The Basketball Federation of Montenegro, and especially the President Jelena Dubljević, instead of accusing the Ministry of Sports and Youth, should ask why it is unable to provide sponsorship contracts and donations, in order to more easily overcome the financial problems in which the Federation finds itself.

So that the Basketball Association of Montenegro would not continue to mislead the public with baseless accusations, we must inform the public that the Law on Sports is the basic model on the basis of which the Ministry of Sports and Youth co-finances the programs of sports associations in the annual public competition. In addition to the funds allocated through the Public Competition, the Ministry can allocate additional funds from the Budget to the national sports federation if the national team qualifies for the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, World or European Senior Championships, if it makes it probable in the request that it could not foresee this at the time of application to open competition.

Therefore, bearing in mind that it is a pre-qualification tournament and not for participation in the World Championship, despite the great desire, there were no legal prerequisites for the allocation of funds by the Ministry of Sports and Youth.

We hereby ask the President of the Basketball Association of Montenegro not to try to deceive the public in this or a similar way in the future because of her own omission and not to find fault in others, but to first look at herself in the mirror, and only then say who is really to blame for what the women's basketball team missed a historic chance to be at the World Cup," announced the Ministry of Sports and Youth.