Scandals in Czech Sports: A Look at Embezzlement, Fraud, and Corruption

Ivo Kaderka, Miroslav Pelta, Vladimír Růžička. What do they have in common? They were among the biggest names in their sports. And they ended up being accused of embezzlement, subsidy fraud or other crimes.

In short, the nearly seven billion crowns that the state distributes among sports organizations tends to attract people who want to steal something from the public purse. And unfortunately for them, sometimes they get caught up in it.

For example, the just-mentioned Kaderka, detained by the National Central Office against Organized Crime at the end of February, was supposed to send almost one third of the total 141 million crowns allocated to all tennis players to one tennis club with the completely trustworthy name “Orel Jednota Praha – Balkan”, which coincidentally is headed by his close friend collaborator.

Similarly, the second named, Miroslav Pelta, former head of the Football Association of the Czech Republic. He was on trial for machinations in the distribution of sports subsidies.

The court has already sent Pelta to prison without authority twice for six years, which is – for him to understand it himself – a whole six seasons. INCLUDING summer break!

Jindřich Šídlo on Happy Monday

In short, there have been so many scandals in sports in modern Czech history that it forced Andrej Babiš to found the National Sports Agency in 2019, which would oversee subsidies and their fair use. Great idea on paper.

It was headed by ANO MP and former excellent hockey goalkeeper Milan Hnilička, who resigned two years later. Immediately after the National Sports Agency audit results came back.

Does this mean that the entire sport is riddled with corruption? Certainly not. But no one can be sure in which sport which scandal will break next.

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And this can turn out to be a serious problem in a super sports year, in which we are waiting for participation in the European Football Championship, the Olympics in Paris and, above all, the organization of the hockey championship. In the case of Senior State Attorney Lenka Bradáčová, who is famous for saying “we can make arrests even at Christmas”, one never knows what kind of action can fall victim to.

How can we save our championship? And what other causes have permeated Czech sport? You will learn this from Jindřich Šídl in today’s Happy Monday.

The satirical program Šťastné Monday is published every Monday at eight in the morning on the Seznam Zpráv website. You can always listen to the new Šťastný podcast on the same day, i.e. tonight, in which we look at the topics of this episode (and not only them) in even more detail.

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