45 million? In accordance with the rules!
Published in Slovak Sport Daily
The government’s decision to allocate 45 million euros over 10 years for the construction of regional football stadiums sparked a wave of controversy. Teachers managed to protest immediately, while sports fans welcomed any funding for sport—even during budget consolidation.
But what will hockey players, handballers, gymnasts, shooters, and others say? For example, that any additional sports funding should have been distributed according to rules that apply to all sports federations—based on transparent, measurable, and pre-defined criteria. And that didn’t happen.
But what if those rules have, for years, been flawed - disadvantaging football in favour of less popular sports, ones with much smaller membership bases, including youth athletes, lower societal impact, and in many cases far less international success than football? Is it right to secure millions for one sport at the expense of all others? For Slovak sport as a whole, no. But football acted pragmatically. Hockey already has its arena in Bratislava. Many successful Olympic sports—though less popular—benefit the most from the current funding system via the Ministry of Education, as well as the Interior and Defense Ministry sports centers.
Millions will go to football. Unfortunately, toward a goal that should not be priority number one. The public interest in financing any sport—including football—with taxpayer money lies in supporting national teams, talented youth, and promoting physical activity for children in and after school. Renovating regional stadiums in regional capitals or district towns should fall to stadium owners—municipalities—or the sports clubs that rent them. For example, the city of Michalovce built a modern stadium for less than 3 million euros.
At least part of the 45 million should have gone toward youth and talent development. And if the priority really is construction rather than coaching, experts can quickly advise on how best to support youth infrastructure.
The key problem here is the lack of clear rules in selecting which towns get funding. There’s no rational justification for why Topožčany, Levice, or Humenné made the cut, while second-division clubs like Rimavská Sobota, aža, or Liptovský Mikulá did not. A competitive tender must be organized for location selection, where the most important criterion is the amount of state funding requested. If a town in the Gemer region—via local businesses, its city council, and the regional government—can build a stadium and asks for five times less than Dolný Kubín, it should be prioritized.
Slovak sport suffers from rule-bending and a lack of transparency. Last year, however, the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) set a good example with the approval of its new statutes. Now, the SFZ Executive Committee and leadership still have a chance to clear up doubts - at least within the football community. Winning over other sports and even more so, teachers, will be much harder.
So here’s the real question:
Which member of the SFZ Executive Committee will propose a review of the government-approved project and push to redirect at least part of the 45 million toward youth programs and introduce a competitive project-based selection process?
