When UEFA launched the Conference League in the 2021/22 season to give the "little ones" the opportunity to play in the group stage, the new competition showed how far Montenegrin clubs are from the rest of Europe.
During the first three seasons, the second qualifying round was the ceiling, often because someone would end up there after being eliminated from the Champions League, and then the summer of 2024 raised hope.
Or rather, it only hid the real problems of our club football. Dečić and Mornar then reached the third round of qualifications for the Conference League, one step away from the play-offs, or two from the autumn in Europe, while Buducnost stopped at the second step.
It seemed then that our clubs were starting to learn, but in the following two seasons - and especially this summer - they quickly brought everything back to reality.
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During the previous season, Dečić and Sutjeska managed to skip the first round of qualifications for the third-highest quality UEFA competition, while Buducnost was defeated by Noa in the Champions League, and then by Milsami in the Conference League.
The summer during which the world was in euphoria over the World Cup showed in the best way where Montenegrin football is - at the bottom, or even lower if possible.
Our football had four representatives in Europe (starting next season, they will have one less), all of them played a total of eight games in the first round of qualifying, and they lost every single one.
Sutjeska was defeated twice in the Champions League by Kairat (2:1 and 2:0), while Mornar (against Atlético Escaldes from Andorra, twice 2:1), Dečić (Lijepaja 1:0 and 2:1) and Petrovac (Žalgiris 3:1 and 2:1) each suffered two defeats in the Conference League.
Eight games, eight defeats and duels in which our clubs scored six goals and conceded 16. Eight circles of hell from which there seems to be no way out for Montenegrin football.
Because if Gibraltar, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Malta can be ahead of Montenegro on the UEFA rankings, then it is clear how things work in Montenegro.
The group stage of some European competition was played in Malta, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, and the European autumn was also welcomed by clubs from Wales that are not part of the Premier League. Only Montenegro, San Marino and Andorra have never felt the joy of European matches, competing for points, for something important, and that is not a fight on domestic terms.
Without a real system in the clubs, without infrastructure, with politicians on the boards of directors (they even took Budućnost far from Europe) and dubious results, it seems that better days are not waiting for our football - rather, it will be the ninth circle of hell.
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