Serbia will not say why it paid for a UFC night
The Sports Ministry put 260 million dinars into a single event at Belgrade Arena. BBC in Serbian asked the government what criteria it used and had no answer by the time it published.
The amount of public money spent on the UFC event in Belgrade is known down to the dinar. The reasoning behind the decision is not, and the first bell is three days away.
The Ministry of Sport allocated more than 260,000,000 dinars, roughly 2,215,000 euros, to co-finance UFC Fight Night Belgrade, held at Belgrade Arena on August 1 with 14 professional bouts on the card. We reported the figure itself earlier, when the state’s 260 million dinars for one fight night first surfaced. What is new dates from July 29: BBC in Serbian asked the Government of Serbia to explain the criteria behind its decision to bankroll a commercial event. No answer arrived before publication. The same question, why Serbia was picked as host, went to the UFC.
How does 260 million dinars compare to Serbian sport as a whole?
It is more than a tenth of everything Serbian sport receives in a year. The comparison is simple, which is precisely why it stings:
- total annual budget for all of Serbian sport: 2,368,027,200 dinars, a little over 20 million euros
- amount for one event, in one arena, on one night: 260,000,000 dinars
- share: slightly above ten percent
That 2.3 billion dinar pot covers federations, national teams, athlete stipends, gym equipment and school sport. One night of cage fighting takes more than a tenth of it. That number is why the question about criteria is a budget question, not an academic one.
What Washington signed with the UFC
The Serbian payment lands inside a wider political frame. The State Department and the UFC signed a cooperation agreement in June aimed at advancing sports diplomacy. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the promotion “the definition of American soft diplomatic power”.
Aaron Ettinger, professor of international relations at Carleton University in Canada, places the practice in a specific political moment.
Sports diplomacy has usually been used to strengthen relations between two countries. But right now, in this “Trump era”, a kind of cage fighting diplomacy is being applied in order to strengthen ties between right-wing social movements
Ettinger does not dispute that sport has always doubled as foreign policy. His objection is narrower and concerns the audience the message is aimed at.
The readings differ. Lavi Margolin, author of Ultimate Fighters and Trumpmania, says staging fights “can be useful for diplomacy, but it does not create such a strong bond”. Lowery Woodall, professor at Millersville University, points back to 2001, when Dana White and the UFC were hunting for venues for their early events and Donald Trump handed them his property in Atlantic City. The link between the American president and the promotion is a quarter of a century old.
The reception at Andricev venac
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic received UFC President Dana White at Andricev venac on July 29, three days before the event. The meeting was warm and brief.
We will do everything we can to host you in the best possible way. And you have to accept all our offers, to let us take care of you in the days ahead
White answered in kind.
Thank you for your kindness and for your time, mister president
Nothing said at that reception explained what the state bought for 260 million dinars or how the figure was calculated. No contract, no projected return, no tourism impact estimate has been put in front of the public.
What Serbian sport says about it
Inside the sport itself the verdict is predictably warm. Luka Nikolic, president of the Serbian MMA Federation, reads the UFC’s arrival as confirmation of status.
This is a big deal and an indicator that Serbia is one of the leaders in this sport, I expect us to become long-term partners with the UFC after this
That logic holds from the position of a federation whose visibility rises with the event. It does not answer the question put to the government, because benefit to one discipline is not the same thing as a criterion for spending public money.
What happens after August 1
The event will go ahead, the fights will be watched, and the question about criteria will still be sitting there afterwards. The government has two straightforward documents that would end the argument: the funding decision with its rationale, and the contract with the organiser. Until they appear, the only official number in this story is 260,000,000 dinars, and the only official response to a question about that number is silence.
