By Jaroslaw Adamowski
August 6 – Serbian Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport Vanja Udovicic said that the government is working on a strategy to privatise the country’s football clubs. Under the plan, the clubs are to model their operations on those of Greek football sides Olympiakos and Panathinaikos.
“We are the closest to using the Greek model of Panathinaikos and Olympiakos,” Udovicic told local daily Politika. “In Greece, in order to buy a ticket for a football match, you need to become a member of a sports association. Even a tourist who buys a ticket needs to become a supporter for a period of six months, and a portion of [the clubs’] revenue is derived from annual membership cards which gives the right to vote [at their assemblies] and costs €30.”
Udovicic said that the ministry will take into account the needs of the Serbian sport and prepare several models for privatisation, but “the final word will belong to the government.”
Asked about the potential privatisation of two of the top Serbian football sides, Partizan Belgrade and Red Star Belgrade, the minister said that, before the clubs could be purchased by private investors, the legal status of their stadiums needed to be put in order.
Partizan’s stadium is located on land which is owned by the Serbian Armed Forces, while Red Star’s facility is located on a land plot owned by the city of Belgrade, Udovicic said.
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