In a joint statement, the elite Prague football clubs Slavia and Sparta criticized the behavior of the head of the National Sports Agency, Milan Hnilička, who attended a celebration at a hotel in Teplice over the weekend, and distanced themselves from the position of Martin Malík, chairman of the Czech Football Association.
The Chairman of the FACR, as one of the representatives of the Czech sports environment, publicly supported Hniliček’s stay in office.
“(Slavia and Sparta) deny that this opinion expresses the opinion of the football movement on the whole case,” the clubs said on their websites. They commented on Malík’s signature under a statement that the Czech Union of Sport provided to the media on Monday. Although its signatories criticized Hnilička for his actions, they also supported his tenure so that the distribution and payment of sports subsidies would not be endangered.
“We consider it inappropriate to downplay Milan Hnilička’s actions in this active way in a situation where a significant part of FACR members as well as other sports associations cannot perform sports activities at all due to hygienic and anti-epidemiological measures, professional sports with significant restrictions, at high additional costs and without presence of fans, “Prague S responded.
Already in mid-January, Slavia and Sparta sharply opposed the controversial NSA poll, according to which football lagged significantly behind other sports in viewership and operation. Both Prague rivals also objected to this research serving as one of the criteria for the distribution of state subsidies.
On Monday, his colleague from the 1998 Nagano Olympic Olympic Team, Jaromír Jágr, also expressed support for Hniliček, but another legendary hockey player, Jiří Hrdina, emphasized that Hnilička should also hold the presidency in addition to his parliamentary mandate. “I don’t understand at all that he hasn’t done it yet. After all, this function is paid for with taxpayers’ money. It was an unforgivable step. At a time when people are shutting down, businesses, restaurants and hotels are going bankrupt, they’re going to have a party there, like if nothing happened, “said the 1985 world champion for the Sport.cz website.
In addition to football, Hnilička was also supported by other sports associations such as hockey, athletics, floorball, judo or basketball, which is headed by the chairman of ČUS Miroslav Jansta. Other unions are reserved. For example, the president of the Ski Association of the Czech Republic, Lukáš Heřmanský, pointed out that athletes do not select the head of the NSA. “Milan Hnilička was not nominated for the position by sports associations, but by the Government of the Czech Republic, and therefore a decision on his future should be made there,” he said.
The National Sports Agency was established in August 2019, when the then Government Commissioner for Sport Hnilička became its chairman. Last year, it was to gradually take over the agenda from the Ministry of Education, which was in charge of managing the sport before its establishment, but addressed the functioning of sport during the coronavirus crisis, including extraordinary subsidy programs.
Since this year, it has been distributing all state subsidies for sports. It has a total of 11.7 billion crowns at its disposal, which is about three and a half billion more than last year. In most non-investment programs, which ensure the activities of sports clubs and associations, including representation, the receipt of applications has already ended. The NSA has previously said that it wants to pay the money to the recipients as soon as possible. Any delay would be problematic for clubs and associations, as government measures against the spread of coronavirus could no longer function and suffer for months.
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