He helped get Slavia to the top, now in Berber’s wiretaps

The word “open” is often overused in the media in connection with interviews. However, this conversation with Jan Nezmar, a man who until recently was a co-author of the great sporting success of Prague’s Slavia in recent years, fits her Cinderella’s shoes.

From the gradual development of Jan Nezmar’s answer to the original question List of Reports, whether he admits his candidacy for the next leadership of the Football Association of the Czech Republic, the messages came really inner and surprisingly direct.

As one of the reasons why he will not strive for a position in the leadership of Czech football, Jan Nezmar stated by himself what he had heard about. Namely, that the interception of his phone call with Roman Berbr is said to be part of the investigation file led to the case of the man who until recently held the position of Vice-Chairman of the FACR.

“I never went to red, maybe someone will say that this is orange,” muses Nezmar, who, according to his own words, was to debate with Berbr on the phone about the delegation of Judge Petr Ardelean at the Slavia-Olomouc match, which took place in April 2019.

In Slavia you headed the sports department, you decided to leave the club in August this year. What are you actually doing now?

I study sports management. Although I once graduated from the University of Economics, I definitely want to expand my knowledge on a number of specific issues. I enjoy it. And when it comes to football, I’m out of the environment now, I’m not a participant in football.

You are not, but maybe you could be. Vladimír Šmicer recently mentioned your name among those with whom, in the new leadership of the Football Association of the Czech Republic, he would like to embark on a revival of the local situation in this sport. What do you think?

I registered it. Vláďa and I know each other, we attended a few events together, for example of a charitable nature. And we talked about football many times, we have very similar opinions on many things. So maybe that’s why he remembered me. But the mention was made only in the media, in reality no one addressed me in this spirit. And I wouldn’t even go for it.

A simple question arises: Why?

I’ll probably step on a very thin ice now. But let me tell you.

I’m out of football now. And I have to say that some things, as they are common in it, are not very compatible with my view of how to live and work. But when you are inside, you have to somehow learn to exist within it. And I think it is important to set at least some personal, insurmountable boundaries. I would certainly like to imagine Czech football as a world in which many things would work completely differently than they do today.

It is the arrest and indictment of Roman Berbrus that many see as a good opportunity to make such changes. Reset the football to work differently. Why don’t you take part in it?

From my point of view, it takes place on two personal levels. I would describe the first as my reluctance to deal with what I would call football policy. In Slovan Liberec it was not so intense about me yet, in Slavia, which had the highest ambitions and plays an important role in Czech football, logically it was. But this direction of the official, which goes completely off the field, does not really attract me. And working in the leadership of the FACR would be largely just football policy.

You mentioned two personal levels. So, what about the other one?

I left Slavia, from the football environment. And a month and a half later, an affair broke out over the arrest and indictment of Roman Berbr and other football people. The affair sets a mirror for us in a way, it allows us to look back on it. what we worked in and what we had to accept. Somehow.

What exactly do you mean by that?

I met Roman Berbre about five times a year, maybe once a month we called. We discussed various topics: national team, time sheets, juniors in the third league… People have many times the feeling that someone who has ever met him must have gone red, but this is not the case.

If you drove on the green, then everything is fine, right?

Maybe someone will say I went orange. I moved in the gray zone, in which Czech football works. No, I can’t get involved in any new structures, I have no right to.

It was reported to me that perhaps one of my phone calls should have appeared in the wiretaps in the file in connection with Roman Berbr’s investigation.

I don’t remember him, so I really don’t know exactly how we were supposed to have the conversation. But according to the football gossip, there is supposed to be a conversation in which Roman Berbr and I talked about the nomination of referee Ardelean for our match with Olomouc. It was then just before the start of the superstructure part of the league. Petr Ardeleanu is generally considered to be a very pro-Pilsen referee. So in Slavia, his nomination caused quite a panic.

So you called Berber.

Like I said, I don’t remember the conversation. But I probably talked to him about it.

Did you do that often?

No, debates about the delegation of judges between us were certainly not common.

And what did you want from Berbr?

I guess I didn’t want to be hurt. This is exactly the gray zone where you just live in football.

Could you offer Berber something in that endeavor?

You say that now it’s all brought to you by whisper. So the police have not addressed you in this matter yet?

Have you ever influenced the performance of the judges yourself or through someone, for example in the form of a bribe?

No, never. That would be a bright red. And I never really went to her.

What were or are your relations with Roman Rogoz, who is now also accused alongside Berbro? And according to what has so far penetrated the media, is the police investigating him because he probably went to the red light in football, in the opposite direction and in violation of regulations practically all the time?

I read those articles that we were friends. I don’t know how it is defined, what is friendly, what is very friendly. In any case, we shout together, which perhaps suggests a lot. We started communicating when he was in Příbram, I in Liberec. Always about football stuff. About players, transfers…

When Roman Rogoz appeared at Vyšehrad, a lot of Slavists went there from you.

Yes, we were looking for a club to place players for whom we did not have a job at the moment. The project with Žižkov had not been completely successful before. So we tried it with Vyšehrad. A year and a half ago, Jirka Bílek took over this agenda for me in Slavia. And since then, I have practically not come into contact with Roman Rogoz.

His reputation and what we know from the police investigation so far testify to the fact that Roman Rogoz’s big domain was work, probably unfair work, with referees. Have you ever talked about it together?

Never. We only talked about sports stuff together.