Slobodan Soro is the new president of the Water Polo Federation of Serbia. He succeeded Viktor Jelenić in this position, who has led the trophy organization since 2018. The new president of the Assembly is Marko Avramović. and before him, Saša Vlaisavljević held that position.
With the national team, Soro won two Olympic bronze medals, two European gold medals, a silver and a bronze medal, one World Championship when he was the unofficial best goalkeeper in Rome, one World Cup and four World Leagues. Later, as the director and president of Novi Beograd, he participated in the creation of the club, which has been a regular participant in the Final Four for the last four years. In the organizational part, he led the F8 of the 2023 Champions League in Belgrade. He has managerial experience and rich contacts in the world of sports.
Avramović has gold and silver from the World Championships, silver and bronze from the European Championships, three golds and one bronze in the World League, and one gold at the World Cup.
The session in Belgrade was attended by 36 out of 38 club delegates and was completed in less than 40 minutes. High-ranking officials from the Serbian Football Federation, the Serbian Football Federation and the Belgrade Sports Secretariat were also present.
The 2025 Annual Report, the Final Account, and the Supervisory Board report were adopted. The financial plan of the VSS and the activity plan for the current year were also adopted.
In his first address to the members of the Assembly, Soro said:
– I would like to tell beautiful stories about what we still need to improve, but we have to go back a few decades, to go back, first of all, to the clubs. Clubs are always the basis of everything. From that system comes the national team with results. Results in the club are one thing and results in the national team are another.
Emphasizing that he is proud to be a part of Serbian water polo, Slobodan Soro added:
– Results are made over 10-15 years and only then can we enjoy the fruits of our labor. It won’t be easy for us because in recent years, we haven’t had great results. From gold in Tokyo, we have first places in Paris and at the European Championships in Belgrade. We were eliminated earlier in other competitions, and those were not results worthy of the reputation of our water polo .
For the new president, the most important thing is to establish a system, especially when it comes to the profession.
– The profession must return to the Federation, the expert council is not working for us. The Coaches Association should be involved as much as possible, so with such a solid system we can achieve results and that is the crowning glory of our work .
Soro also announced the adoption of certain rules:
– The coach will not be able to be a coach in the home club. We have had these overlaps for a long time, ever since Nenad Manojlović in Niš, Dejan Udovicić in Partizan, Dejan Savić in Red Star, Petar Porobić in Jadran and now Uroš Stevanović in Radnički. This is not fair to our sport. There have been cases where players were blackmailed to play for a certain club in order to be national team players. I repeat, this is not fair to sport .
The competition system is still a cancer of the wounds:
– We have to change it. We have been fighting for a strong league for ten years. We were part of the Regional Competition, but we were always marginalized, even when we helped financially. This year with Montenegro, it worked well until the well-known events surrounding the hosting of the Final Four. I will not go into where the problems came from. I want us to play serious competitions .
Everything is known about the national team:
– Even from the period when I was playing, we didn’t share competitions. I’m proud of three Olympic gold medals, I hope for a fourth, which no one has done, but every competition is important .
The judge’s position is clear:
– There is no real way of evaluating, it is not known how they are delegated for the biggest competitions. That was the exclusive right of the selectors or some individuals. We have to value them, to be independent, without pressure, to not experience bad words .
And finally, Soro said:
– The lack of a training center is a great injustice to our results. I will do my best to do something good about this issue .
Soro appointed part of the Board of Directors, consisting of: Đorđe Pejčić, Dejan Jovović, Igor Žarković, Svetlana Grubor, Željana Dubaić, Goran Medaković and Radiša Ćeriman. The remaining members will be proposed in the coming period, but they need to be accepted by the Assembly of the Supreme Court. The Supervisory Board includes: Kristina Glišić, Marijana Maksimović and Silvija Milenković. The Secretary General will be appointed soon and the first steps will be taken.
Soro and Avramović were elected unanimously with the abstention of the Red Star Water Polo Club.
Before the elections, the current President of the VSS, Viktor Jelenić, thanked the members of the Assembly for their cooperation. He noted the results achieved in the younger categories, as well as the two Olympic and European senior gold medals won, the world bronze, the world league and the bronze at the World Cup.
– When I arrived, the debt was 1,250,000 euros, I leave 500,000 euros in the cash register and another 140,000 based on sponsorships. I am proud because I am the only president who has led the club and the national team to achieve such results. The only thing I did not manage to solve the issue of the swimming pool.
After 13 successful years of work, Secretary General Nemanja Marijan bid farewell to the Assembly with well-chosen words, and the previous President of the Assembly, Saša Vlaisavljević, was presented with a plaque as a sign of recognition.
