A professional team should not hold out its hands to the state

“Slovak football clubs will hardly fight their way into the main stage of the Champions League in the coming years, but I think our national team can rise. Yes, even to the World Cup,” says Jozef Tokos, a licensed football agent who focuses particularly on the relationship between sport and law.

An expert on world football claims that after joining the European Union, our players may grumble at first, but only for a while. “Their salaries may be a little lower at the beginning. The employee status will, for example, guarantee them proper holidays. They will be able to protect their interests through trade unions. Cases of wages not being paid for several months in a row will disappear.” Tokos emphasized: “If it turns out that at the time of payroll the club used the money for another purpose, it commits a criminal act.”

The lawyer expects more of our footballers to leave for abroad rather than an inflow of foreigners. “If a player goes to a quality club, Slovak football must benefit. On the other hand, I do not rule out that with good marketing and realistic thinking, our teams can also strengthen.”

Tokos gave an example: “A literally scarce ‘commodity’ in Europe is a left-back. I found one in Lithuania, he will play in the Czech Republic. The Baltics are an untapped field. Of course, Latvia had a bit of luck when they qualified for the European Championship. But at least they got that chance. And that is a country with a much smaller player base than Slovakia, and where football ranks behind basketball and hockey in popularity.”

According to the agent, a possible success of the Slovak national team could also have a reverse effect. Greater Europe would start to take more interest in Slovak players. “Then it’s up to the club how it uses the money. For 70 million, the amount one club received for one of the recent transfers, other players can be bought, even promising youngsters. A club can, for example, establish additional youth teams or lay artificial turf. Of course, money can also be unclearly ‘sunk’ and the club’s coffers siphoned off. There have been and still are plenty of such cases in Slovakia. I’m not saying that abroad everyone manages well. Their failures are known for a long time. Relegations and bankruptcies of well-known teams exist there too. But here everything is blurred, unclear. Everything is supposedly being resolved, and in the end, it is said to turn out well. The truth is almost always the opposite. Are you surprised that sponsors ignore such clubs? European Union law should at least make financial flows more transparent. I also believe that several, or rather most, clubs, if they are reasonable, will move to a system of building squads consisting of professionals, semi-professionals, and amateurs with certain amounts necessary for sporting activity. For example, with very young players.”

Tokos reminded that he is almost opposed to professional clubs stretching out their hands towards the state treasury. A different case is cooperation with the city and the region. “The state should focus primarily on the national team, and on youth development projects in schools. Definitely not on professional teams and their junior or youth squads.”