Corruption and Mismanagement in Czech Sports Associations: A Call for Accountability

And again, it’s not a small thing. The Czech Tennis Association should return over 29 million to the National Sports Agency. And that’s only for the year 2021. He used the subsidies for the national team to organize tournaments, and the money for youth development went only to a few clubs associated with Kaderka or companies associated with Flégl.

Former mayor Sokola Moučková was tricked by a cunning fraudster who had her around her finger. After the information about the embezzlement came to light, Eliška C. poisoned herself at the beginning of this year directly in the offices of the Czech municipality of Sokolská. On the contrary, the case of the tennis association is more reminiscent of cases from other sports where a clientelistic system was created.

There is already a case of corruption and match-fixing in court, where the prosecutor proposed on Tuesday a sentence of seven years in prison for the former vice-chairman of the Football Association of the Czech Republic, Roman Berber, 7.5 years for his right-hand man, the former sports director of Slavoj Vyšehrad, Roman Rogoz, and almost seven years for former player and official Michal Káník.

Berbr usually used referees in Vyšehrad matches so that Slavoj would win. A player or an official of a rival club was also bribed to be sure.

Each of these cases is different, but they have one thing in common. They take place in the environment of sports associations and organizations subsidized by the state. The check has been failing for a long time. Although Berbr is on trial and Kaderka is in custody, it should never have come this far.

The scandal with “capers” in football (a caper meant a thousand for a referee who blew the whistle to win a certain team) broke out in 2004, the first verdicts came two years later. As Berber’s case has shown, football has not been cleansed.

In 2022 and 2023, the former chairman of the FAČR, Miroslav Pelta, was sentenced unconditionally to six years in prison due to the case of distribution of sports subsidies, but it was an extrajudicial sentence, and after Pelta’s appeal, the case will be dealt with by the Supreme Court. The long-term boss of Jablonec is still at large. On the other hand, the head of the Czech Sports Union and the long-time chairman of the Czech Basketball Federation, Miroslav Jansta, was acquitted twice in the same case.

And then there is the recent case of the head of the ski association, David Trávníček, who is accused of handing over a bribe for influencing a public contract from the state agency CzechTourism. Agency manager Aleš Pangrác manipulated a total of five CzechTourism public contracts worth almost three million crowns in favor of Trávníček and companies to which the current head of skiers was close. According to the indictment, Trávníček handed Pangrác a bribe in the total amount of 340,000 crowns. Nevertheless, Trávníček remains at the head of the ski association.

Control in sport is insufficient, even when public money, i.e. taxpayers’ money, goes into it. After all, supporting sport is so God-loving, it is called “sport for health”. However, it is impossible for anyone not to notice in time who is the right hand of Mayor Sokol. She was in foreclosure. And it’s not at all clear that someone didn’t notice the financial machinations on the falcon’s accounts.

However, money also goes to sports, which are quite profitable, because they pay the Roman “bread and games”. And everyone knows that sporting success will always reduce discontent in society. However, it is not possible to let sports officials grow into such a position that they become almost untouchable and can sweep any criticism of their activities off the table.

Augiáš’s stable must be swept away, regardless of the wailing of individual unions, the impact various causes will have on them and what is at stake if they do not receive the required sums for their activities.

That way, a few tournaments wouldn’t take place, maybe some athlete would lose quality facilities, which is of course painful, but it’s not a reason to tolerate a sports state in a state where different rules apply. Exceptions cannot apply to sports, even if people enjoy them. Without this cut, the sport will not be cleansed and there will always be speculation whether a key match was decided by an incorrectly whistled penalty.

Berber’s case shows that laws apply to everyone. However, the goal is to prevent similar excesses. The basis is more careful supervision of to whom and for what subsidies are provided and how they were used. This will not work without in-depth checks and audits.