Novi Pazar manager demands referee exclusion after loss to IMT

Novi Pazar suffered a 2-1 defeat against IMT in the 12th round of the Serbian Superliga, a match marked by significant controversy. The game turned in the 27th minute when referee Nikola Radaković issued a direct red card to Papa Gadio following a VAR review. Despite playing with ten men, Novi Pazar took the lead in the 48th minute through a goal by Dickson, but IMT responded with goals from Keita and Kamano to secure the comeback victory.

Novi Pazar manager Nenad Lalatović expressed intense frustration following the match, criticizing the refereeing standards and the delegation process of officials. The club has issued a formal statement demanding the lifetime exclusion of Radaković from all future Novi Pazar matches and has called on the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) to provide answers regarding the officiating. Lalatović also noted that the early yellow cards for his players placed the team in an unfairly difficult position.

In other regional sports news, Zadar secured a 84-73 victory over Split in a Croatian basketball derby, overcoming a significant halftime deficit. In table tennis, the Montenegrin Super League saw dominant performances from the Novi teams, while in futsal, high-scoring matches were highlighted by standout individual performances from Jovan Orbović and Marinko Janičić.