KSS Draws Its Numbers, KLS Schedules Own Draw for Thursday
The Basketball Federation of Serbia has drawn competition numbers for the new league season, but the KLS Clubs Association does not recognize that draw and has scheduled its own for Thursday at 5 p.m.
Imagine running a basketball club and receiving two different schedules for the same season on the very same day. That is exactly what happened in Serbian basketball today.
The Basketball Federation of Serbia (KSS) drew the competition numbers for the 2026/27 season on the morning of September 9. According to a statement on the Federation’s website, the draw took place at the Nobel Zira hotel in Belgrade, and the statement referred to the competition as the First Men’s League of Serbia. The same source said the numbers were drawn by competition director Milan Tasic and a representative of the KSS marketing department.
The problem is that, according to the KLS Clubs Association, that draw should never have taken place at all. The UK KLS said the same day that the drawing was “illegitimate and contrary to the decisions adopted yesterday by the majority in the Assembly of the UK KLS,” and immediately scheduled its own draw.
“We hereby inform the Serbian public that the draw for the new season of the Meridianbet Basketball League of Serbia, held today and organized by the KSS, is illegitimate and contrary to the decisions adopted yesterday by the majority in the Assembly of the KLS Clubs Association. The draw for the 20th anniversary season of the Meridianbet KLS will be held tomorrow starting at 5 p.m., with a live broadcast on TV Arena Premium 1.”
The Clubs Association said so in its statement, leaving no doubt about how it views the morning’s events.
So on Thursday at 5 p.m., viewers will be able to watch a second draw for the same league, this time organized by the league itself, which has run that season under the name Meridianbet Basketball League of Serbia for two decades.
Why Are There Two Draws for the Same League?
The root of the dispute is not new. The KSS Executive Board terminated its contract with the KLS Clubs Association on August 22, a contract originally signed on February 21, 2011, with an annex added in 2016. The KSS said the reason was that the contract’s provisions were not in line with the Law on Sports and that the work of the UK KLS bodies was effectively blocked, since there was no majority even to adopt the agenda at its sessions.
That is no small matter at a time when the competition rules, calendar and disciplinary rulebook must, by law, be adopted no later than 40 days before the league starts. The deadlock even reached the courts: the First Basic Court in Belgrade issued an interim injunction halting the implementation of competition director’s decision number 38/26 of August 4, and barred the adoption of the proposed 2026/27 calendar, competition rules, disciplinary rulebook and financial plan. Because of that injunction, the UK KLS Assembly session scheduled for August 13 was also canceled.
Meanwhile, the KSS pressed ahead with its own procedure. The deadline for clubs to apply was August 27 at 4 p.m., and a preliminary list was published the next day, August 28. Four clubs, FMP, Spartak, Dinamik and Zlatibor, requested in writing that the Federation take over the organization of the league. Under the KSS plan, the season is set to start on October 3 and 4.
The Federation maintains that the door is not closed. If the UK KLS accepts a new contract aligned with the Law on Sports, the KSS has announced it will immediately hand the organization back to the Association, on one condition: a KSS representative would then have to sit on the KLS Presidency and Assembly.
What Happens Now
For clubs and fans, that means one thing for now: two different calendars are circulating while the legal question of jurisdiction remains unresolved. The next test comes on Thursday at 5 p.m., when the KLS draws its own numbers on TV Arena. Whether the Federation and the Association can agree, by then, on having a single draw instead of two will become clear in the coming days, since just over three weeks remain until the announced start of the season on October 3.
