Serbian Association of American Football

To whom it may concern
We would like to draw your attention to recent and not so recent events in the Serbian American Football Federation (SAFS). Due to constant violations of the Statute by the Board members, disciplinary rulings not supported by the Statute and expulsions of teams and officials from the federation without legitimate reasons, eight Serbian teams were forced to establish a new federation called Serbian Association of American Football, or SAAF, with Superliga chosen for the league name.

The SAFS Board's actions have been reported to the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Sports Association of Serbia. The outcome will be a cut down of financial support by the Serbian Government to the Federation, or more precisely, the Federation will be unable to receive funds from the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sport.

At the same time this documentation will be submitted to the relevant court authorities, with a compensation claim for the damages inflicted upon both individuals and teams, due to SAFS' Board members actions not in accordance with the Federation Statute.

As the members of the newly formed federation, we will do everything in our power to gain recognition of relevant authorities, such as the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Sports Association of Serbia, as well as relevant american football organizations such as IFAF and EFAF. We will also do so in order to prevent the danger of deficient financial support for development projects, as well as the integration of Serbian Football into international level, since those goals are at risk, or won´t be implemented as initially planned .

The above mentioned developments have been discussed in the press thoroughly and as a result of this, in order to avoid further damage, a group of teams had initiated a General Assembly to be held on the 22nd of February, with the goal of electing a new Board. Unfortunately, the rampant violations and abuse of power that has marred the previous year continued at the Assembly, where certain teams were denied their right to vote and some were allowed, or more accurately some were brought in to vote, despite not participating in the forthcoming season, which previously barred teams from voting, and also their status being unknown, as it is unknown if they still actually function as teams.

With this, the below signed teams had no option but to form a new federation. Relevant documentation will be submitted to EFAF and IFAF and we will ask for their help in this matter also.

A lot of the problems over the past year originated from the current SAFS President's, Vladan Lapcevic's, dual role of federation president and the Secretary General of the independent Officials Union, which he runs, along with his brother Goran Lapcevic as president. One of the goals at the Assembly was to place the Officials Union under the federation, but as that did not happen, the Serbian Association of American Football will form its own officiating institution that will function as the official American Football Refereeing Association of Serbia.

Sincerely,
Belgrade Vukovi
Novi Sad Dukes
Indjija Indians
Jagodina Celts
Vrsac Lavovi
Nis Imperatori
Obrenovac Sky Thunders
Sombor Celtis