Hungarian PM to Open Football Academy in Serbia
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Hungarian Prime Minister Vikor Orban will attend the September 27 opening of a football academy in the northern Serbian village of Backa Topola, which has been funded by the Hungarian government with 9.5 million euros.
“The modern academy with a central stadium, four auxiliary terrains and accommodation rooms was built with a donation of the Hungarian Football Federation of 9.5 million euros,” the Serbian news agency Tanjug said.
It is also announced, that together with Orban, the ceremony will be attended by the head of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, SVM, Istvan Pastor and representatives of the Hungarian and Serbian football federation.
In March last year, Serbian media reported that the Hungarian Football Association would provide 9.5 million euros to build one of the most modern football academies in Serbia, in the small Vojvodina town of Backa Topola whose mayor is from the SVM.
Media reports said this deal sparked controversies in Hungary, due to an alleged lack of transparency in the donation.
In return, local authorities in Backa Topola secured 5.5 hectares of land where the Academy was built.
Backa Topola has the population of around 30,000 of which around 57 per cent are ethnic Hungarians.
According to the UK Guardian, on January 11, Orban is known for steering funds towards football, a topic close to his heart, adding that such investments had sparked criticisms and claims that he was abusing public funds.
According to the website Politico, Hungary uses sport to boost the government’s international profile and popularity at home.
A report published last August said Orban’s critics say they are at best expensive vanity projects and at worst, a way to consolidate power through patronage and corruption.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) told BIRN it cannot comment on the claims.
“OLAF does not usually issue comments on cases it may or may not be treating. This is in order to protect the confidentiality of any possible investigations and of possible ensuing judicial proceedings, as well as to ensure respect for personal data and procedural rights,” the answer read.
Orban’s interest in football in the Balkans does not stop in Backa Topola. According to the reports, Orban’s close ally, the most powerful business oligarch in Hungary, Lorinc Meszaros, helped the Croatian football club Osijek and, together with his partner, covered most of the club’s debts.
Meszaros, who is also the head of the Ferenc Puskas Football Academy in Hungary, in 2016 bought a majority stake in the Croatian First Football League club with local businessman Ivan Mestrovic.
The report said that they took over the club “for the symbolic price of 1 kuna (12 pence) per share which translated to the overall price of 2,5 million kunas or roughly 300 thousand pounds”, Slovenian journalist, Antun Katalenic, published in August.
Orban’s interest in football and financing of this sport is also known in Romania, where the Football Academy of Szekely Land was founded with help of the Meszaros’s Puskas Football Academy and the Hungarian government.
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