Would you buy a football club?

Zdroj: Pravda, Michal Zeman

“If you had money, would you buy a football club?” we asked Jozef Tokos, a licensed football players’ agent, who deals with a relationship of sport and law. “Probably I would decide for a green field club, meaning that I would found a new club, absolutely transparent, with clear ownership relations, without hidden debts etc.”, he says. “I would not be afraid of starting somewhere in a lower league, neither.”

Only under the condition that everything works according to the principle of transparent trade company, he would enter an existing club. “I think that this cannot be definitely said about all top Slovakian clubs, so far. And it is especially a transparency of ownership relations that is very important when prospective new owners or advertisement partners and sponsors enter the club.”

According to Tokos, it is not essential whether one or several owners own a club. “It is its behaviour and the fact, whether everything works as it should, whether everybody fulfills his duties and respects the distribution of competencies that do matter,” he assumes.

Tibor Jancula, a former Slovak national team player, thinks that at present, none businessman enters the Slovak football with the aim to make profit. “If someone starts in the football business, there must be something behind, nobody does so because of mercenary reasons.”

Jancula says that if he had enough money, he would buy a football club. “Namely it is my personal concern, I have been related to the football all my life, that would decide in my case. However I would not expect earnings.”