The Supreme Judicial Council responded to the national team: Political showdown

The Water Polo Association of Serbia (VSS) stated that it believes that the election of the Association's leadership has turned into a "purely political showdown" and accused 11 Serbian water polo players, who announced their withdrawal from the national team while the new president Slobodan Soro is at the helm of the Association, of using their position for "political purposes".

"As an organization, we do not want to participate in any way in what has turned into a completely natural process in a sports organization like the Water Polo Federation, which is the election of the leadership that takes place regularly every four years and which has proceeded without any friction, and which has turned into a pure political showdown and abuse of sport for political purposes. We are a sports, not a political organization, and whoever of the current or former water polo players, coaches or members of the Federation wants to engage in politics has the full right to do so, but what they do not have the right to do is use their sporting, current or former position for those purposes," the VSS statement states.

"The desire is obvious and it is completely clear that someone is trying to achieve their political goals through water polo, and this is confirmed by the way in which a significant part of the political public is involved as if by pressing a button. The Water Polo Association does not want to participate in this," the statement added.

Eleven Serbian water polo players announced on Thursday that they were withdrawing from the national team due to, as they believe, Sora's attempt to "discredit and belittle" the successes they achieved with the national team, as well as previous moves by the new president of the Serbian Water Polo Association, which they believe were an attempt to "harm the Serbian national team."

This decision was preceded by the resignation of coach Uroš Stevanović, and the statement, referring to themselves as "players of the Serbian national team", was signed by Nikola Jakšić, Radoslav Filipović, Dušan Mandić, Strahinja Rašović, Sava Ranđelović, Đorđe Lazić, Radomir Drašović, Nemanja Vico, Nikola Dedović, Petar Jakšić and Viktor Rašović.

However, the Serbian Water Polo Federation stated that of the 11 players who signed the statement, only four of them are current members of the Serbian national team.

"The Water Polo Federation of Serbia is obliged to be precise. We do not want to deprive the public of any information. For the sake of the truth, we are obliged to note that it is not 11 current national team players, but four current and seven former ones," the Federation said in a statement.

The Supreme Court stated that in the last competition that the Serbian national team played under Stevanović's leadership, which was the World Cup qualifiers, Strahinja Rašović, Sava Ranđelović, Radoslav Filipović, Radomir Drašović, Nemanja Vico, Nikola Dedović and Viktor Rašović were not invited to the national team.

"Whether they were not invited due to their age, poor form, generational change or some other reason, we do not want to go into that, but we want to state that this is the factual situation and that they were not on the list of the then coach Uroš Stevanović," the VSS statement reads.

The Supreme Court stated that only Nikola Jakšić, Petar Jakšić, Đorđe Lazić and Dušan Mandić, who did not participate in that tournament due to injury, were invited.

"We believed that the public had a duty to be informed and that, if it is already insisted that the players are national team members, which they certainly all were at different periods of their careers, then it should be precisely stated who are current and who are former national team members, because it was Uroš Stevanović who decided on this when he was making the list of players for the last competition in which he led the Serbian national team," the Federation said in a statement.

At the end of the statement, the Supreme Court of Serbia published the full letter signed by 11 Serbian water polo players stating their decision to withdraw from the national team.