MONTENEGRO

MONTENGRO

Milivoje Kovacevic, AIM Podgorica

After dissolution of SFRY, political predominance of Serbian cadre to the detriment of Montenegro achieved by outvoting identically reflected on sports. One can count on the fingers of one hand the sports unions of FR Yugoslavia constituted on the basis of parity. Montenegrin sports are in a specific difficulty having become the hostages of political relations between the two republics. Besides, the years spent in international isolation further deteriorated the situation.

The efforts failed of some Montenegrin sports unions motivated by protection of interests of the sportsmen they represent to directly apply for membership in international federations. In 1997, "national awareness" of Montenegrin sports workers started awakening and their imploring that Montenegrin interests be protected in Belgrade intensified. At the same time, Montenegrin state realised that success in sports is the best advertisement for it. That is why they focused on creating teams which are competitive in Europe, and for the time being this trend is yielding good sports results. It is not at all a coincidence that the most expensive team is Buducnost basketball club. It is generally known that Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic visits all its games. To what extent that decisively affected the flourishing of basketball in Podgorica is best illustrated by a graffito on the wall of the seat of Buducnost football team which has for years remained near the bottom of the generally weak Yugoslav first football league. The disappointed fans wrote: "If only the President liked football".

That is why interconnections among the best teams in the successor states of SFRY imposed itself spontaneously as the result of the need to raise the quality necessary in order for them to get to grips with powerful and rich foreign teams. The known initiative for the foundation of the basketball Adriatic League is just about to be realised; official Podgorica has already given its approval and supported the integration. After years of war waging when every form of wisdom was pushed to the margins, the sports are reappearing as a cohesive tissue among the states and peoples of the once joint homeland.