Club revenues could be boosted by a joint league with the Czech Republic

Jozef Tokos – sports analyst and football agent

What makes up the main portion of Slovak football clubs’ income?

Since teams receive negligible amounts for television rights and the top division has minimal attendance – and therefore laughably low gate receipts – the third source remains: commercial income from sponsorship deals. To a lesser extent, there is also player sales, but a major transfer abroad from our league has not happened in a long time.

Roughly two-thirds of foreign clubs’ revenues come from ticket sales and TV rights – in Slovakia, for Slovan, it’s only about 3 percent. How could this be increased?

The only way to significantly increase the earnings of Slovak clubs is a joint competition with the Czech Republic or another foreign league. This would greatly improve commercial activity, increase attractiveness, and certainly draw more fans to watch football. Whether this is realistic in the future is uncertain, but the completion of new stadiums could make this vision more achievable.

So, under current conditions – meaning competing in the Slovak league – what is the most economically advantageous solution for clubs?

Developing their own players, for two reasons. First, they can be sold abroad in the future at a good profit. Second, they can be integrated into the senior team, saving money on transfers and wage costs. Homegrown players usually earn less than purchased reinforcements. This is the path followed by Žilina, Senica, and Trenčín.

No Slovak club is mentioned in connection with investigations for violating Financial Fair Play. So it seems they are operating sustainably.

Financial Fair Play, meaning maintaining balanced finances, applies only to clubs that regularly qualify for European cup competitions. And if we look, for example, at Slovan or Trenčín, they ended the year 2013 in profit. Therefore, they should face no issues from UEFA in this regard.