[Ilkae]

What do you think?

What did he do that truly deserves to be criticized/reprimanded? (and on what scale?)

The Serbian authorities had allowed all the activities to take place in the manner they were carried out. The 1st leg of Adria Tour kicked off 12th of June in Belgrade. Already on the 10th of June the football derby of the same city was played in front of a near full stadium of 25k spectators, outnumbering Adria Tour by far. This is one local frame of reference. The intention was to do good: to continue with tennis after a stressful/gloomy period; players wanted to continue their craft; spectators wanted to have fun; revenue was intended for charity.

Fans dub Belgrade 'capital' of tennis as crowds flock to Djokovic's charity event

Novak Djokovic's Balkans charity tennis tournament suffered a setback on Saturday when its planned Montenegro leg was cancelled over coronavirus fears. But the blow didn't deter fans from hailing the…

www.france24.com

Asked to comment on social distancing measures during the Belgrade leg of the event, which has witnessed packed stands, Djokovic said that both Serbia and the region were relatively successful in containing the virus.

"Of course you can criticise, you can also say this is dangerous or not, but it's not up to me to make the calls what is health-wise right or wrong," he told reporters on Friday, stressing he was acting in line with recommendations of the Serbian government.

Balkan countries coped with the coronavirus pandemic with relative success.

The region of some 22 million people registered about 24,000 infections and fewer than 800 deaths.

Initially, the organisers in Belgrade, respecting the rules in force after the relaxation of the lockdown in Serbia, put 1,000 tickets on sale.

They sold out in just seven minutes.

Since then, the authorities have further relaxed the lockdown and another 1,000 tickets were put on sale and they sold out almost as quickly.

According to the organisers, 2,000 additional tickets were distributed to various sponsors.

"It's fantastic, we are the capital of the tennis world this weekend," said Dusan Bogicevic, 25, a law student from Belgrade.

Fans watching the action at the Novak Tennis Centre on the banks of the Danube appeared to have little regard for health precautions recommended by the organisers.

Each person was given a mask at the entrance to the stadium, but inside only a few wore them.

Amongst the players, Zverev of Germany was happy to be back playing.

"To tell you the truth I didn't see that many people in one room in quite a while," Zverev told a press conference.

My opinion:

They should've administered tests at least when all the participants had arrived from different parts of the world. Even if the local situation would be fairly well under control, other parts of the world might not be doing as well. No hugging etc. should've taken place either before everyone had been cleared. This (= people not tested) consequently made some of the extracurricular activities questionable, even if again such activities were within what was permitted locally. In a nutshell, they were too careless.

But what has truly happened so far? Some players and their family and team members have been infected. Other than that (to my knowledge) there have been no reports of infections linked to Adria Tour. Furthermore there are no reports so far of anyone truly suffering a bad case of Covid-19. Lastly, no one was forced to do anything. Even the spectators, as the article states, were handed masks, but it was then up to them whether to use them or not. Again, the Serbian authorities did not mandate the use of a mask (I'm going by what Djokovic said in that article).

To conclude, while some of the protocols (IMO first and foremost the absence of testing) were subpar/too lax, no real harm is yet to (reportedly) happen. Djokovic eventually apologized (which IMO was ok, while some don't seem to think that even an apology was warranted; everything was supposed to be fine after all, so an apology is IMO in order particularly as it was the "performers" themselves who got the show cancelled, and became the source of the risk; in addition the remaining legs and the Croatian F were cancelled so you may have screwed up some peoples plans). World moves on. Serbian authorities though may have jumped the gun; a football match with 25k spectators particularly is a bit baffling to me at this stage still; looking at the number of daily infections now, Serbia may be picking up pace; if anyone from the area wants to chime in what is being reported locally, would be interested...

PS. Srdjan's behaviour on the other hand has been something else. Fingerpointing and a bunch of other bullshit. Lack of character.

 

[Djoker]

You tried to be objective here and I think you succeeded at that.
Nothing major to add from my side as I really think likewise about all this.

Some of the extracurricular activities were unnecessary: basketball event and the Belgrade rave party.
The kids' day is questionable IMO.

There were no mass infections among the spectators or participants of these events, apart from the players and their teams/families.

The region (not just Serbia/Croatia, but the broader Balkans and Turkey) is experiencing a rising level now, so new restrictions might be put in place again...

(Djokovic's father should have kept his mouth. This time especially.)

 

[bhdtl]

No of course not. He had good intentions. It was a charity event meant to help people, but it turned out wrong because every player there (not just Djokovic) underestimated how widespread the virus is and some allowed themselves to catch it. Many people are acting like Djokovic did not care for the wellbeing of others or even himself which was not true. He just didn't see any of it coming. Donna Vekic lives there also and she said there are no restrictions there. That gave everyone the sense that everything was fine.

His haters are just using it as an excuse to bash him and try to ruin him only because they dislike him, which is malicious and mean-spirited.

 

[smithy]

The organisers should take most of the blame, but partying afterwards really was stupid and Djokovic should be criticised for that. Even if it was allowed, common sense should have prevailed, though Djokovic probably doesn't have a whole lot of it judging by his comments during the ongoing pandemic.

I sense that people in Serbia have a hard time saying no to Djokovic.

 

[Monsi]

Well... Criminal accusations are made mostly by people with an agenda. Subpar judgment, lacking leadership. hubris and detachment from reality are not considered crimes just yet. May even imply a bright future in politics.

 

[Ronman]

They could have done without the basketball and the clubbing tbh

And this is coming from a Djoko fan

 

[yellow grass]

I mean, what's with that party...and all the hugging? ... and all the acting like we are not in the middle of a fu###in' pandemic. That's what I have issues with

 

[sav001]

I mean, what's with that party...and all the hugging? ... and all the acting like we are not in the middle of a fu###in' pandemics. That's what I have issues with

Everyone in Serbia is doing that. The night clubs are packed with people.

 

[hammett]

Fair criticism should be, Djokovic being a leader, endangered the tennis season restart. Failing all necessary guidelines to host an international event (and the players). Like they meant nothing . I remember me as a kid asking my dads car keys , following the night I had come home drunk, had vomited the entire bathroom and gone to sleep . Djokovic reminded me that kid . haha . Seriously . Even the excuses after "but dad the serbian and croats sold me the wine and beers , they are at fault!" that's pathetic guys , sorry .

And that's discounting if you don't believe in the dangers of Covid .

 

[Basher]

Intentions are irellevant imo.

I think some criticism is fair but do agree that if local regulations were followed than these guys are tennis players, not doctors, and can't be expected to make the best judgement themselves. Having said that, there were some obvious problems with the whole situation which could have been easily avoided (was partying, hugging etc REALLY necessary?), and which should have been handled better and a guy like Djokovic (and the other players for that matter) should have known better.

I think a problem here is that Djokovic has seemed to have some questionable thoughts on medicine/health as a whole in the past. His previous mentions on the pandemic weren't exactly convincing either. For some this probably all adds up and makes this seem even worse.

 

[64794]

As I said before, just because it is allowed you don't have to do pull something off. Nobody says Novak is legally criminal. But he was being careless.

 

[guitarra]

 

[guitarra]

Also, I find it a bit boring that TOP7 threads on this forum are about Novack Fakervic. Let's get over it and discuss some other things.

 

[Ilkae]

Well... Criminal accusations are made mostly by people with an agenda. Subpar judgment, lacking leadership. hubris and detachment from reality are not considered crimes just yet. May even imply a bright future in politics.

What do you mean with the bolded part as it pertains to Adria Tour? The hugging of the other players as they arrived, or behaving in general like it was normal times already? Detachment from reality seems harsh, when you consider, as I wrote in the OP:

Asked to comment on social distancing measures during the Belgrade leg of the event, which has witnessed packed stands, Djokovic said that both Serbia and the region were relatively successful in containing the virus.

"Of course you can criticise, you can also say this is dangerous or not, but it's not up to me to make the calls what is health-wise right or wrong," he told reporters on Friday, stressing he was acting in line with recommendations of the Serbian government.

Fans watching the action at the Novak Tennis Centre on the banks of the Danube appeared to have little regard for health precautions recommended by the organisers.

Each person was given a mask at the entrance to the stadium, but inside only a few wore them.

And:

Football news - Serbia lets 25,000 attend derby as coronavirus lockdown eases

Serbia's president on Thursday defended authorities who allowed 25,000 fans to attend a cup tie between Belgrade's leading clubs.

www.eurosport.com

Serbia's president on Thursday defended authorities who allowed 25,000 fans to attend a cup tie between Belgrade's leading clubs as Serbia's coronavirus restrictions ease.

The game, in which Partizan beat Red Star 1-0 in front of a customary backdrop of flares and chanted taunts, was the Serbia's biggest mass event in months.

[...]

"Because of the reopening (after the state of emergency), we have new cases as we are ill-disciplined ... but they are mainly asymptomatic," he told Reuters in an interview. "We will listen to what our doctors say."

[...]

Eastern Europe has, by and large, been spared the huge epidemics and death tolls seen further west. Serbia has confirmed just over 12,000 cases and 252 deaths among its 7.2 million people, with new infections running at a few dozen a day.

Soon after the state of emergency was abolished, many Serbians, including leading public figures, quickly abandoned continuing social distancing rules and stopped wearing the recommended masks and gloves.

But not everyone is so relaxed.

Dejan Zujovic, a Belgrade physician who fell ill with COVID-19 after treating patients with the virus, said allowing crowds to attend a match was "a huge, enormous, totally unjustified epidemiological risk".

Sladjan Svrzic, a retired army colonel, said there appeared to have been little chance of fans distancing at the match, "and I think that was the moment when contamination was possible".

So you also have people criticizing the approach from the authorities. As far as Djokovic goes, I think you need to keep the number of cases in mind, and that this has been the approach of the authorities. That said, "hiding" behind the authorities doesn't leave you without responsibility nor blame, as there have been various approaches from authorities here and there during this pandemic. They're not infallible. So you can (and should particularly when organizing mass events) consider multiple angles. But then again the Corona situation didn't seem to be too bad.

Also to consider:

Everyone in Serbia is doing that. The night clubs are packed with people.

You weren't doing something unprecedented. (Plus Serbia isn't the only country to open its nighclubs either. I recall this being the case at least in S. Korea as well; and Sweden of course; S. Korea had some outbreak originating from a nightclub, which then led to tightening of the restrictions again momentarily)

If everyone gets through this unscathed, then as a positive this could even end up being a reminder for the other planned tournaments on best practices. A prototype/test that failed, but from which you can learn.

 

[BodyServe]

The crime of being a better tennis player than Federer and Nadal???

 

[Ilkae]

Fair criticism should be, Djokovic being a leader, endangered the tennis season restart. [...]

Did he? To quote a legendary (?) MTF rabble-rouser: is this a fact or an opinion?

Just because you had a minor outbreak, doesn't mean that all is lost. As I wrote in my previous post, this could even end up being a positive thing in two ways: 1) if no one suffers any bodily harm, that could even be a calming factor for some (i.e. that catching the virus isn't a death penalty; although I've said that as a top athlete I'd personally be very cautious when it comes to a disease with somewhat unquantified potential in terms of the damage it may cause to your lungs; along with your health goes your career; but could still be a calming thing mentally); and 2) the following tournaments can learn from this (as well as from the other tournaments that have already been played); what to do; what to not do...

 

[A_Skywalker]

I will tell you what he could have done better from his part. Don't invite people to disco, don't hug them, don't come close to them, don't shake their hands.

 

[Ilkae]

Also, I find it a bit boring that TOP7 threads on this forum are about Novack Fakervic. Let's get over it and discuss some other things.

View attachment 355533

 

[Henrik]

Also, I find it a bit boring that TOP7 threads on this forum are about Novack Fakervic. Let's get over it and discuss some other things.

In before Djokovic-tards post a thread entitled something like "Nole the superior MTF-GOAT by far - the top seven eight threads devoted to him."

Seriously, though, gotta agree there is an urgent need for other topics, though I'm afraid there is still some time before we get proper tennis to discuss.

 

[TigerTim]

At this stage, no. It's getting boring. His parents don't help, they need some PR. Cluttering up the news cycle with more shit just as it was starting to die down.

That's not to say the circumstances were absolutely moronic.