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Mihály Muszbek, sports economist and former managing director of the Professional Football League, gave an extensive interview to 24.hu.
Even if not every detail is that exciting, it makes strong statements on some things.
He spoke, for example, of how different Viktor Orbán was in his first term in office, when Muszbek, as managing director of HLL, negotiated with him more times than now.
“I could have met Viktor Orbán personally at that time. Even then, he became interested in the Hungarian football course in an extraordinary and individual way. He was ready and able to receive and call separately, either with Sándor Demján or Tamás Deutsch. In such cases, it was only suggested, never instructed by any of us. This is also true in the case where I reported to Deutsch the sanction of dishonest treatment due to the entry system worth 4.5 billion HUF and worthless. At that time, at least one prosecution investigation was launched … “
By now, he says, public money is transforming sport into a propaganda toolbox. Between 1998 and 2002, Orbán “was good, helpful giving tools to sports, football, professional thinking, and he did not choose non-existent professionals for the toolbox, as he does today. And it wasn’t entirely obvious, the ultimate goal of the entire flow is to get votes through sport. The number of Olympic gold medals has never been said to be a line of right or wrong for a nation. Nor have I heard expressions that have raised sports to the level of the national economy, what is the importance of GDP, I do not give it a god in relation to public debt.
Regarding the processes that have been carried out since 2010, Muszbel says that “the sport is supported by the government with public funds of almost 400 billion guilders a year. Just for comparison, the state’s direct source of total Hungarian higher education is 180 billion HUF per year, that is, it spends more than 2.2 times more on Hungarian sports than on higher education. Of course, this is not a problem, because if you have money for it, then I am happier that new sports properties are being built, old ones are being beautified. The problem is, I don’t see the other half of this enormous resource being spent on strengthening future market processes. That after a while there would be no need for public money or a significantly less role for the state. To be self-sufficient, if not all the Hungarian elite sport, but football in any case ”.
According to Muszben, “The biggest sin of this ten-year leadership, including politics, MLSZ, the team owners, for not doing this kind of work, did not create the opportunity for the clubs to let loose.”
When asked “what is the difference between pre-transition and modern sports politics?”, He replied that:
“Nothing. We wrap sport as part of culture and put it at the service of politics.”
Regarding the Puskás Academy, he said that “despite the fact that the Puskás Academy became third in the league, despite the fact that it reached the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, the tragedy of the Hungarian football championship is the club’s participation in the NB I. In a town in 2000, there is no affordable living space for quality sports. But it is also a tragedy that Mezőkövesd and Kisvárda can also be there. It shouldn’t be there, unless, like Hoffenheim or Salzburg, a true billionaire owner was behind the club, someone who spent a portion of their actual business performance on their passion. I observe that even they do this in the hope that if they do it by following the basic principles of economics and with the right football professionalism, they will be able to achieve it after a decade of work, fill the stadium for the quality of the show and make their sports business profitable. . He could also form a NB I team if he were given three billion guilders of public money each year. It is not art. “
According to Muszbek, there is no need for the 27 soccer academies, “which issued 600 inappropriate shares a year. Of the nearly 6,500 academic graduates in the last ten years, fewer than 15 play abroad today. ”
He says that “life has long transcended the academic system, children have not been separated from their families abroad for a long time, but we are forcing this. Rather, a maximum of five regional MLSZ academies would be required with a selected team of professionals, infrastructure, and most importantly, continuous monitoring, where only children from the given region could be selected. The best professional clubs would be admitted to the academy maintained by the association with public funds, and after the first professional contract, the public spending will be borne by the client club and the association spending with tax money will already be zero. If the French federation can have its own academy in France, why is it not working for us? “
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