The president of the Club of Montenegrin Olympians, Andrija Popović, responded to yesterday's announcement by Katarina Bulatović, who is a candidate for the president of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee (COK).
Bulatović announced yesterday that after more than a decade of existence, she wonders what the Club of Montenegrin Olympians has done from what is its basic role in accordance with the adopted Statute.
In response to Katarina Bulatović, Popović said "so far there has been no such interest, not at any Olympic forum, I guess your motive is not the upcoming Election Assembly of the COC and the position of the four delegates in the Assembly that the Club of Montenegrin Olympians has regarding the election of the President of the COC. "
We transmit Popović's answer in its entirety:
Dear Mrs. Bulatović,
I would like to thank you for the congratulations on the occasion of the great recognition for me and Montenegro, the entry into the List of World Trophy Olympians at the Extraordinary General Assembly of the World Olympic Association held on October 11.10.2024, XNUMX. in our home Olympic house, Lausanne-Switzerland.
I am glad about your interest, as a silver Olympian, sports director of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, but also as a candidate for the President of the Olympic Committee, in the status and activities of the Club of Montenegrin Olympians. So far there has been no such interest, not at any Olympic forum, I guess your motive is not the upcoming Election Assembly of the COK and the position of the four delegates in the Assembly that the Club of Montenegrin Olympians has regarding the election of the President of the COK. I guess we are all proud that three of the Club's delegates in the COK Assembly are gold Montenegrin Olympians and the fourth, a bronze Olympian, and two of our delegates are celebrated Montenegrin handball players.
Let me remind you and the public that the COK Assembly in 2010 passed the Decision on the establishment of the Club as a body of COK and formed an initiative committee consisting of: Andrija Popović, president and members Zorica Pavićević, Ljiljana Mugoša-Vučević, Svetlana Mugoša-Antić, Mirko Vičević, Igor Vušurović. Then in 2011 The founding Electoral Assembly of the Club was held in Cetinje, the President and the Board of Directors were elected, in which, in addition to the listed six golden Montenegrin Olympians, who have the status of the top athlete of Montenegro, the bronze Olympian Veljko Uskoković was also elected, as well as the supervisory board. Later in 2012. At the OI in London, Montenegro achieved its biggest sporting and Olympic success so far, the silver medal of the Montenegrin handball players, of which you are also a proud part, which brought the number of Olympic medal holders, with the status of top Montenegrin athletes, to 25, Olympians and Olympians.
At the end of 2011, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro registered the NGO "Club of Montenegrin Olympians" as a non-governmental organization with listed founders. In the same year, at the Congress of the World Olympic Association (WOA) held in Athens, Greece, the KCO was admitted to full membership, thanks to the great Olympic and sports authority of the founder of the Club. From the very beginning, KCO encountered insurmountable problems concerning material and financial operations, we mainly financed the work of the Club from personal funds, especially the initial funds that were substantial (founding of an NGO, website, technical person...). All this has been reduced in the last few years due to the lack of financial opportunities, although COK has modestly financially supported the work of the Club several times in those 13 years. At that time, we turned to the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Directorate for Youth and Sports, numerous sponsors for financial help, but there was no response from the Club, whose founders are the most trophy-winning Montenegrin athletes.
As there was no interest in taking over the leadership of the KCO in recent years, which gathers participants of the Olympic Games, Olympic medal winners, head coaches and selectors of the Montenegrin Olympic teams, as well as judges who performed their duties at the Olympic Games, which is expected due to systemically undefined finances. I feel responsible for not having succeeded all these years, with the other members of the KCO leadership, we are all absolute volunteers, to solve the minimum systemic funding of the KCO. As the KCO is independent in its activities according to the Statute, it is represented and represented by the President, and the Club's headquarters is in Podgorica, at the former address of the COK, because we do not have the funds to lease space, I believe that we will jointly implement the goals and activities of the Club in the future, basically, support , spreading, implementing the basic principles of the Olympic Charter in Montenegro.
As there is an agreement that the Electoral Assembly of the KCO will be held until the end of this year, taking into account the obligations of the founders of the Club, as a non-governmental organization, I believe that you too, if you are elected as the President of the COK, but also from the position of current sports director, and you have given immeasurable contribution to our sport, do everything to financially solve the business and operations of the Club. From my parliamentary and sports experience, the only way for the Club to function is to be part of the Budget for 2025. COK, that is, the Ministry of Sports and Youth. If that doesn't happen, the Club will probably stop working, which would be disastrous for us, the Montenegrin Olympians. This attack from your side was unsportsmanlike in the media, there are very few of us Olympians in Montenegro, a little more than 100, we should resolve any possible disagreements on Olympic bodies and forums. With this forced response to your letter, I am ending the media skirmishes.
Sports greetings and good luck at the upcoming Cok Electoral Assembly, to you and the current President Simonović. "That the election of the President of the Croatian Football Association be carried out in a sporting, Olympic and chivalrous manner," stated Popović's reply.
Bonus video:
