Thirteen years after becoming champions of Europe, Crvena zvezda will enter the 2026/27 season without a senior water polo team.

The immediate reason is clear. Crvena zvezda failed to obtain the licence required to compete in Serbia after not submitting its application by the deadline and failing to settle outstanding financial obligations to the Serbian Water Polo Federation. Vojvodina are set to take their place in the Premier Regional League.

But September’s decision is better understood as the latest consequence of financial problems that have followed the club through much of its modern history — including, remarkably, during its greatest-ever season.

In 2012/13, Crvena zvezda assembled a formidable squad featuring Andrija Prlainovic, Dusko Pijetlovic, Nikola Radjen and Denis Sefik under Dejan Savic.

Yet by January 2013, months before they lifted the Champions League trophy, the project was already in financial difficulty. Then-president Viktor Jelenic publicly acknowledged that sponsors who had promised money had stopped providing it and told players they were free to leave because the club could not guarantee its obligations. Pijetlovic later confirmed that the players had received just one salary.

They stayed.

What followed was one of the most remarkable seasons in Serbian club water polo. Crvena zvezda won the Serbian Cup, Serbian championship and Champions League before adding the European Super Cup later in 2013. Savic’s first spell eventually produced two Serbian championships and two national cups alongside the European title.

The trophies, however, did not remove the underlying problem.

When Savic returned to Red Star in 2017, Jelenic said the club still owed its former coach money and put Crvena zvezda’s total debt at €180,000. He also stated that the 2013 Champions League-winning campaign had been achieved with a budget of around €550,000.

Savic’s later spells were significantly less successful than his first. He resigned in December 2018 following poor results and elimination from the Serbian Cup, explicitly accepting responsibility for the team’s performances. But it would be misleading to make Savic the explanation for Crvena zvezda’s wider decline: the financial issues predated his later returns and continued across different coaches and administrations.

Nor did Red Star simply disappear competitively after their golden period. They continued to produce occasional significant results and won the Serbian Cup again in 2021 and 2023, the latter with an 11-10 final victory over a much-fancied Novi Beograd side.

The latest attempt to rebuild

In March 2025, businesswoman Vesna Nikolic became club president. She spoke publicly about using her experience and business network to create a new board, attract financial support and return Crvena zvezda to the highest level.

The following summer brought another ambitious rebuild. A large group of experienced players arrived and, as late as September, coach Aleksandar Filipovic was speaking positively about establishing the club on stable foundations.

Within months, it had unravelled.

By December, numerous players had left. Sport Klub reported that members of the squad said only one salary had been paid, while Filipovic’s playing group rapidly diminished. Nikolic was subsequently removed as president by a unanimous vote at an extraordinary club assembly on December 13. Club officials made a series of allegations concerning her administration, but those remain allegations rather than independently established findings.

Importantly, the financial crisis cannot simply be attributed to Nikolic.

On June 1, 2026, 13 players, coaches Filipovic and Balsa Nikolic, and assembly president Goran Cikaric issued a joint statement claiming the club owed more than €500,000, primarily to players and staff.

Crucially, they said that debt had accumulated across the previous two and a half seasons — meaning a significant part of it predated Vesna Nikolic’s presidency.

Despite the turmoil, a depleted Red Star completed the season and finished fourth in the Serbian championship. Filipovic then departed for Bulgaria, the remaining senior players left and the club did not enter European competition.

By September, there was effectively no senior squad left to licence.

A changing balance of power in Belgrade

Crvena zvezda’s decline has also coincided with a dramatic shift in the geography of Serbian club water polo.

VK Novi Beograd was founded in 2015 with Aleksandar Sapic among its founders and, by the early 2020s, had developed the resources to assemble squads containing some of the world’s best players.

In 2021, Sapic said that no public money had been invested in the club up to that point, but openly acknowledged the importance of his personal contacts in attracting support. He also said that after becoming part of Serbia’s governing majority, more people had become willing to help the project.

The transformation was extraordinary. Between 2022 and 2025, Novi Beograd reached the Champions League Final Four four consecutive times and contested three finals.

There is no evidence that Novi Beograd’s rise caused Crvena zvezda’s problems — Red Star’s financial instability was documented years before Novi Beograd even existed.

But the contrast is difficult to ignore.

In 2013, Crvena zvezda demonstrated that an extraordinary team could overcome unpaid salaries and unstable sponsorship long enough to become champions of Europe.

What they were unable to do was turn that extraordinary success into lasting financial stability.

Thirteen years later, the problems that existed even at the club’s highest point have finally caught up with them.

Crvena zvezda still exists. Its history has not disappeared. But as the 2026/27 season begins, one of the most recognisable names in Serbian water polo has no senior team — and no simple route back.

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