Serbian players celebrate after winning the European Aquatics Men’s Water Polo Championship final match between Serbia and Hungary in Belgrade, January 2026. Photo: EPA/ANDREJ CUKIC.
Criticism from Serbia’s new Water Polo Federation of the national men’s team, the current Olympic and European champions, has sparked a crisis in the sport, which is highly popular in the country.
Members of the national men’s team announced on Thursday that they will withdraw from the team as long as the recently elected president of the Water Polo Federation of Serbia, Slobodan Soro, remains in charge. Earlier this week, head coach Uros Stevanovic also resigned over the same dispute.
The players said Soro had “on several occasions, through his statements, attempted to discredit and belittle” the achievements of the national team.
“Our gold medals were by no means the result of momentary inspiration, as Slobodan Soro claims, but rather years of great sacrifice, training, unity, and struggle,” the players wrote on Instagram.
Soro, who was elected president of the Water Polo Federation on April 29, told Serbia’s public broadcaster RTS on Sunday that Serbia now has a national team “that is not at the same level as in previous years”.
He added that the men’s team’s Olympic and European gold medals were “more a matter of temporary inspiration than proof of great quality”.
Following those remarks, the players announced their withdrawal.
“After much consideration and mutual discussions, we unanimously decided to withdraw from playing for the Serbian national water polo team as long as Slobodan Soro and his team remain at its helm,” they wrote.
The players also claimed that some team members had not been treated well by Soro and his associates at the Novi Beograd water polo club, founded by former player and Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic. Soro previously served as the club’s director.
According to the website Vaterpolo vesti, Soro was backed for the federation presidency by Sapic.
The letter was signed by 11 players: Nikola Jaksic, Radoslav Filipovic, Dusan Mandic, Strahinja Rasovic, Sava Randjelovic, Djordje Lazic, Radomir Drasovic, Nemanja Vico, Nikola Dedovic, Petar Jaksic and Viktor Rasovic.
Coach Stevanovic resigned on Monday, saying the new federation president had used “language unbecoming of the current Olympic and European champions. Language aimed at a qualitative and professional discrediting of the Serbian national team, for reasons I do not understand”.
The Water Polo Federation responded on Friday, saying the election of the new management had turned “into a purely political confrontation and an abuse of sport for political purposes.
“We are a sports organisation, not a political one,” the federation said, adding that “someone is trying to achieve their political goals through water polo”.
Serbia’s national team won the last three consecutive Olympic gold medals and are also current European champions.
Soro, a former goalkeeper, played for both Serbia and Brazil during his career and retired in 2021 while playing for Italian club Lazio. According to the Telegraf website, he refused to comment on the players’ letter.
