The President of Serbia Vucic comments on Crvena Zvezda and Partizan / News - Basketnews.com

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said that both clubs receive significant amounts of money from the government and it's no wonder they're both fighting for the playoffs. Vucic asserted that Crvena Zvezda are paying their taxes. Vucic said the Serbian national team is the strongest in Europe despite recent struggles.

Credit: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic - Scanpix Credit AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic - Scanpix

For the first time in years, the two biggest Serbian clubs - Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade and Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade - are fighting in the EuroLeague at the same time.

2-pointers this season

55%18,9Points made:18,9Accuracy:55,2%Place in standings:11Record max:33Record min:11Most made 2FGs:Filip PetrusevTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Both clubs have made some notable signings both before and during the season with Partizan bringing in established names during the offseason while Crvena Zvezda penned a deal with Facundo Campazzo in the middle of the year.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, made a guest appearance on Happy TV where he gave his quick thoughts about the eternal rivals and their participation in the top European competition.

"We have put ourselves in a situation where we allocate so much money for the basketball clubs Crvena Zvezda and Partizan that maybe [only] three or four basketball clubs in Europe have such [an amount of] money from the state, no wonder they are fighting for the Final Eight," the leader said.

Amidst the player registration ban that the EuroLeague imposed on Crvena Zvezda and that prohibits Campazzo to play in the tournament at least until March, Vucic asserted that the club from Mali Kalemegdan is doing its duties to the government,

"It is a huge amount of money from the state," he said about both club's budgets. "I just want to tell people that a strong state can finance it, and Zvezda is very fair in terms of paying taxes."

With 10 wins and 9 losses, Crvena Zvezda share the eighth spot in the EuroLeague standings with Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Partizan have achieved 9 wins in their EuroLeague campaign and sit in 11th place together with Valencia Basket.

Later on in the interview, Vucic proclaimed that the Serbian national team is the strongest in Europe despite recent performances in the top tournaments.

"We were not lucky at the EuroBasket but I hope we will be lucky at the World Cup and the Olympic Games as well as at the next EuroBasket because I think we have the strongest team by far. When there's Nikola Jokic and then there's [Bogdan] Bogdanovic, with the current [Filip] Petrusev... With all the NBA players, it's a national team that few can compete with in Europe."

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