{"id":839900,"date":"2026-08-02T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839900\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T13:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T13:48:14","slug":"crvena-zvezda-president-reveals-budget-plans-confirms-nikola-vucevic-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839900\/","title":{"rendered":"Crvena Zvezda president reveals budget plans, confirms Nikola Vucevic talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crvena Zvezda are expected to maintain a similar budget next season, while club president Zeljko Drcelic also confirmed talks with Nikola Vucevic and left the door open to a future move.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/teams\/74-crvena-zvezda-meridianbet-belgrade.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade<\/a> president Zeljko Drcelic has provided details about the club\u2019s projected budget for the 2026-27 season while also confirming that discussions were held with <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/8301-nikola-vucevic.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nikola Vucevic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>        <a class=\"article-widget__photo\" href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/8301-nikola-vucevic.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-452239-plsm.jpg\" alt=\"Nikola  Vucevic\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                Position<br \/>\n                C\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Age<br \/>\n                35\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Height<br \/>\n                206 cm\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Weight<br \/>\n                118 kg\n            <\/p>\n<p>\n                Birth place<br \/>\n                Morges, Switzerland\n            <\/p>\n<p>According to Drcelic, the Serbian club&#8217;s budget will remain close to last season&#8217;s level, although several previous financial burdens have been removed.<\/p>\n<p> Crvena Zvezda budget to remain at similar level <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The budget will be somewhere around the same level as last season, but it will not include certain burdens, such as the contracts of players who did not have a role in the squad or did not even play for Crvena Zvezda last season,&#8221; Drcelic told <a href=\"https:\/\/meridiansport.rs\/kosarka\/zeljko-drcelic-teodosic-navaro\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meridian Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/es\/news-232014-crvena-zvezda-budget-for-2025-26-season-revealed.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Drcelic revealed that Crvena Zvezda&#8217;s budget is set to be around \u20ac20 million<\/a>, meaning the club is expected to operate with a similar figure during the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The Crvena Zvezda president also rejected suggestions that the club spends tens of millions of euros without any financial limitations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I often hear stories that Crvena Zvezda spends tens of millions of euros or has no spending limit, which is completely untrue,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Then, when the EuroLeague or specialist websites publish budgets based on exact data, many people &#8216;forget&#8217; what we said.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drcelic explained that the club does not have an official salary ceiling but does not plan to give one player a contract that significantly exceeds the salaries of his teammates.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do not have a written rule for that kind of restriction, but it is clear that we have not had, and will not have, a player whose contract is significantly higher than those of the others,&#8221; he noted.<\/p>\n<p> EuroLeague reward reduced by fines <\/p>\n<p>Crvena Zvezda received a \u20ac400,000 reward from the EuroLeague for complying with the competition&#8217;s financial fair play regulations.<\/p>\n<p>However, Drcelic revealed that almost half of that amount could be lost through fines.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are record-holders in that regard, and that is something all of us must change together, especially if we want to become a permanent EuroLeague member,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the money allocated to fines over the years, we could now have signed one major reinforcement or invested it in another important club project.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drcelic admitted that Crvena Zvezda cannot match the spending power of some EuroLeague teams but believes the club can compete through its organization and working conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The market determines players&#8217; salaries. There are EuroLeague clubs that we simply cannot compete with financially,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, in terms of our organization and the conditions we currently provide, I can confidently say that we are among the top three clubs in Europe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> Talks held with Nikola Vucevic <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-461819-any780x600.jpg\" title=\"Nikola Vucevic\" alt=\"Nikola Vucevic\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Nikola Vucevic<\/p>\n<p>Credit Scanpix<\/p>\n<p>Drcelic also confirmed that Crvena Zvezda discussed a potential move with Vucevic this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran center is a known supporter of the Serbian club but ultimately decided to continue his NBA career.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There were conversations,&#8221; Drcelic revealed. &#8220;First of all, Nikola is an excellent person, but he is also a great Zvezda supporter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That does not mean he will automatically become a Crvena Zvezda player.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drcelic explained that Vucevic&#8217;s family situation and long connection to the United States made a potential return to Europe a complicated decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is a family man who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, since his high school days,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Such moves are not easy, and in his case, money was absolutely not a factor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although Vucevic remained in the NBA, Drcelic suggested that the possibility of him playing for Crvena Zvezda in the future has not been ruled out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had a gentleman&#8217;s agreement that, if he did not receive an offer from the NBA, he would put on the Crvena Zvezda jersey,&#8221; Drcelic said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Since he is an elite athlete who continues to take care of his body and career, it is clear that the door has not been closed,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p>\n<p> Reacting To Your EuroLeague Hot Takes!   <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/plus?utm_source=basketnews_com&amp;utm_medium=bn_plus&amp;utm_id=UA-259273-31&amp;utm_campaign=banners_free_content_for_not_members_bottom_7\" class=\"banners_paid_content_info_block_white banners-paid-content-info-block-white\" data-google-interstitial=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bn-plus-img img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bn-plus.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Thank you for reading us! 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It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crvena Zvezda are expected to maintain a similar budget next season, while club president Zeljko Drcelic also confirmed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-839900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}