The Government of Serbia has allocated 528,750,000 dinars (around 4.5 million euros) from the budget reserve for the regular operations of the Football Association of Serbia and the Basketball Federation of Serbia, as published in the Official Gazette.
A grant of 235 million dinars (around two million euros) has been approved for the regular operations of the Basketball Federation, while 293,750,000 dinars (around 2.5 million euros) has been allocated to the Football Association.
Separate decisions on these grants were signed by Prime Minister Đuro Macut.
Last year, the State Audit Institution found that the financing of sports federations from the Serbian budget is not sufficiently efficient or transparent, as funds are allocated without strategic objectives, partly outside prescribed procedures, and with inadequate oversight and reporting on how the funds are spent.
Thus, in the period 2023–2024, as much as 6.3 billion dinars was allocated to sports federations outside the procedure prescribed by the Law on Sport. The issue is that the funds were not allocated by decision of the Ministry of Sport, but through Government decisions on the use of the current budget reserve.
The Ministry of Sport did not carry out timely monitoring of the implementation of regular annual programmes of sports federations, which meant that the Commission for the Evaluation of Annual and Special Programmes, or projects, lacked information on whether previously completed programmes had been successfully implemented. Furthermore, the Ministry of Sport did not conduct inspection oversight in the area of financing sports federations, the State Audit Institution concluded.
(Nova Ekonomija, 23.03.2026)