Ilic Resigns, Stays Through Hetafe Rematch
Partizan's coach resigned after a third straight loss but will stay through Thursday's Hetafe rematch, while the club's entire management is leaving regardless of the result.
There was not much talk in the Lucani dressing room on Sunday night. Partizan had just gone down 3-1 to Mladost, a third straight defeat, and Sasa Ilic decided not to wait for Monday. He handed in his resignation as head coach on the spot, in the dressing room, while the players were still peeling off their jerseys.
The loss in Lucani was not a random dip in form but the third consecutive setback for the black and whites in the Superliga. Partizan has taken just four points from a possible 15 across five rounds and dropped to the bottom of the table, a place nobody at Humska expected the country’s most supported club to occupy in late August.
Why Ilic is staying on for now
General director Danko Lazovic and sporting director Radosav Petrovic did not let Ilic walk out right away. According to what the club has said, they talked him into staying at least until the Conference League playoff return leg against Hetafe, arguing that changing coaches on the eve of a match that decides the whole season would only hurt the team’s chances further. Ilic agreed, but only until that match. After it, he leaves no matter the result.
The rematch with Hetafe is set for Thursday in Belgrade at 9 p.m., and the task ahead is far from easy. In the first leg in Madrid, at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez, Partizan lost 3-1. Demba Sek pulled the black and whites level in the 43rd minute, and from the 68th minute the visitors even played a man up while holding the score at 1-1. Then it slipped away late: Andres Garsija struck in the 87th minute, Johan Mohika in the 90th, while Enes Unal had already put Hetafe ahead in the 10th minute of the match. Partizan now has to make up a two-goal deficit in front of its own fans, or the club’s European season ends before it really began.
The whole board leaves after Hetafe
Ilic’s departure is not an isolated case. Club president Rasim Ljajic, general director Danko Lazovic and sporting director Radosav Petrovic have already announced their own resignations, and theirs have nothing to do with the outcome of Thursday’s match. This continues a story we covered earlier, when Partizan’s entire management first announced it would leave after the Hetafe tie.
“The FK Partizan Management Board takes full responsibility for the results achieved,” the club’s Management Board said in a statement, adding that the resignations are not conditional on the outcome of another match.
A club assembly to elect new leadership has been scheduled for the period between September 21 and 25, during the season’s first international break. The club has not yet announced the exact date of the session, and until then, the statement says, Partizan’s operations will continue uninterrupted in line with the club’s statute.
What the sources say, and what they don’t
The reports diverge slightly here. Espreso says Ilic’s resignation was not accepted at first, while B92 and Kurir write that his departure after Hetafe was never in question, only postponed by one match. In substance the difference is smaller than it sounds: everyone agrees Ilic will lead the team on Thursday and leave the bench afterward, the only dispute is how long the club hesitated before formally acknowledging the resignation.
This is the hardest moment for Partizan in years, not just because of results on the pitch but because the club is heading into the season’s most important match knowing that, however the rematch ends, it will lose both its coach and its entire management. The fans at Humska know this well, which is why Thursday will call for more than a win, it will call for a dignified end to a mandate. The next stop is August 28 and the draw, either a place in the group stage or another round of upheaval at a club that hit the bottom of the table faster than anyone expected.
