Billions for sportsmen! The era of socialism is about to end!

The state finances 80 sports nowadays. Only “preferred” sports to be funded in the future!

It is the end of socialism in the funding of sport. A draft proposal from the expert team of the Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda came with such a vision. It presents new criteria for the distribution of state funds for particular sports. “Our document is in the final phase, the Prime Minister by himself will introduce it,” said for (Hospodárske noviny) Jozef Tokoš, the leader of the team. “The present system of funding in sport is absolutely not transparent,” he says. “More than 80 sports are financed by state. It is necessary to prefer just some of them. The other sports will receive less money.”

The ideas of sportsmen are different – they would like to divide the whole cake themselves. According to Jozef Tokoš, it is absolutely not acceptable from the viewpoint of the administration of public finances.

Ján Filc, the head of Slovak Union of Sport, agrees with the intention to change criteria in funding of sport. “It is impossible to hand out finances because of a victory in a specific sport.” In his opinion, the social importance of a specific sport for society should be a significant criterion – how many young people are addicted to that kind of sport, how often is that kind of sport mentioned in media.

Martin Fronc, the Minister of Education, presents his own document to a Government session after long-lasting discussions - a draft law on sports. It does not contain criteria of financial support for sport. “The draft law is important. It is dedicated to the sport federations and its organization, the safety on the stadiums and anti-doping,” said Stanislav Kosorín, the director general of the section of the state care for the sport at the Ministry of Education. The draft allows for the creation of an advisory body for the distribution of finances - a commission comprising members of sport federations The minister will have the final word about the donation, reminds Kosorín. The Ministry of Education also envisages changes in distribution of finances for sport in the future. “We think about the funding of just some individual and some collective sports. The others would have to find their own way of funding, “said Kosorín. The sport associations agree but they cannot find a common speech -which of them should be chosen and financed. Mainly football, tennis and hockey profit from the current system, they get the most of money. More than one billion Slovak crowns is dedicated to sport from the state budget this year. “If sport associations don’t make order in funding, this sum will not be sufficient.” stressed Kosorin.

The funding of sport was a problem in the past. Many of the undertaken financial control found out the contravention of law when managing with money from the state budget. The sport associations got large penalties. In the case of Slovak Ski Federation and ŠK Slovan Bratislava the police was also involved. A special police unit invaded the premises of the football club Slovan Bratislavaq in June 2004. The criminal prosecution begun because of economic criminality. The investigator asked foreign partners for judicial help and some expert's reports, informed Jana Pôbišová, from the press department of the Ministry of the Interior. At the moment there is no one accused in the case Slovan. Július D., the chairman of ski federation, has already been accused of breaking main commercial rules. The damage caused was 70 millions crowns. However, the investigator recently suggested stopping criminal investigating. What is the reason? He didn’t find the deeds as criminal acts. The prosecutor will have the final word.