Tense moments in Serbia, where Marko Jovanovic, former defender and current coach of Teleoptik, Partizan Belgrade's reserve team, was attacked in front of the club's sports centre. The episode also had enormous resonance due to the identity of one of the alleged attackers: it would be Djordje Prelic, former ultras leader of Partizan and already convicted for the murder of Brice Taton, the Toulouse fan who died in 2009 after a brutal beating in Belgrade. According to Jovanovic himself, published in an official Partizan press release, it all began with a request for some shirts from the first team players. "When I arrived at the sports center I found Prelic together with two other men. He reproached me for not having provided him with the shirts he had asked for. I explained to him that I would have tried to help him, but that I was very tired at the moment because my sister is seriously ill. He replied that he didn't care", said the coach. From there the situation quickly escalated. "He took off his glasses and suddenly punched me in the head. I tried to defend myself, but one of the men who was with him hit me again", added Jovanovic, who was later taken to hospital for treatment. Prelic was initially sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of French fan Brice Taton, which occurred before the Europa League match between Partizan and Toulouse in 2009. After a long legal case, the sentence was reduced to ten years and in 2021 he was granted parole for good behavior. Jovanovic announced that he had filed a complaint and asked for "a rapid and decisive response from the authorities" to shed full light on the incident.
