MEDIA CONFERENCE | 9th INTERNATIONAL MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT "MILJAN MILJANIĆ "

The Belgrade FA press center hosted a media conference on the ninth International Memorial Tournament “Miljan Miljanić 2023”. The tournament will take place at the Serbian FA Sports Center in Stara Pazova from May 8 to 11, 2023, and the participants shall be the host, Serbian national U16 team, as well as their peers from Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, and Bulgaria. All matches will be played at FSS SC in Stara Pazova. On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, the Miljan Memorial will be opened by the national teams of Montenegro and Bulgaria at 3:00 p.m. on pitch number 4. Serbia and North Macedonia shall be playing on the pitch number 1 at 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, May 10 is a day off, and the delegations of the participating countries, the Serbian Football Association, and the Belgrade Football Association, in the presence of Miljan Miljanić’s family members and his former footballers, will lay flowers on his grave located in the Alley of Meritorious Citizens at Belgrade’s New Cemetery.

The competition ends on Thursday, May 11, with the match for the 3rd place (14:00 h, Pitch no. 4), followed by the final match at pitch no. 1, which will kick off at 16:30h. After the final match, there will be a trophy awarding ceremony.

The media representatives were addressed by the general secretary of the Football Association of Belgrade, Miloš Mirković, acting Serbia U16 coach Jovan Damjanović, and captain of the U-16 Serbia team Jovan Miladinović, who began their presentations with statements of deepest condolences to the families of the children killed in the unprecedented tragedy that happened in the Elementary School “Vladislav Ribnikar” in Belgrade municipality Vračar.

Acting Serbia U16 coach Jovan Damjanović emphasized the legacy of Miljam Miljanić, to whom the coaching profession owes a lot, not only in Serbia, but also at the global level.

– It is a pleasure and an honor that I will have the opportunity to lead the selection of Serbia at the tournament in honor of Miljan Miljanić, who not only improved and developed Serbian and Yugoslav football, but with his ideas and work also greatly contributed to greats such as Real Madrid. He had a huge impact on the development of European and world football. The matches between Crvena Zvezda and Liverpool played in 1973 and Miljanić’s setting of the game changed the game a lot on the “island”, and this speaks of where our roots are, where we started and that we still have someone to learn from today. Once our coaches set standards, changed the philosophies of world football greats, that is something that I value deeply and something that remains forever. Because of all that, it will be an honor for us to represent Serbia at the upcoming tournament in honor of the great Miljan Miljanić – stated Jovan Damjanović clearly.