Money is not everything: the Hungarian football story

Although the Hungarian government squanders enormous amounts of money on football, the results do not seem to pay off. Qubit.hu analysed the Hungarian teams’ remuneration and awards on a European level.

The total amount of money received by Hungarian football teams from European sources has added up to EUR 12.5 million since the 2012/2013 season in the Champions’ League and the Europa League.

The amount received altogether is not even enough to reach Videoton’s yearly budget.

There are several ways through which teams can receive remuneration from UEFA:

• A prize for the qualifying round,
• A prize for the group stage,
• A prize from UEFA additional revenues.

From this, it is quite clear that proportionately to outstanding performance, the prizes would go higher. As this year’s season of Champions League and Europe League has already started with the first-round qualifying matches, calculations based on this are appropriate. Videoton has got into the second round in the Champions League, while two other teams, Honvéd and Újpest successfully made it to the next round of the Europe League. From now on, it is already granted that Hungarian teams will make more money than last year, even if, in the worst-case scenario, the teams fail to succeed to the next rounds.

Photo: Vidi.hu

However, this granted amount is not much if taking a closer look: EUR 1.2 million received by Videoton would not even be enough to finance 10% of the team’s yearly budget.

In the past 6 years, 8 Hungarian teams made it to one of the European leagues: Videoton, 2015 Champion of Hungarian contest (5 times), Debrecen (5 times), Ferencváros ( 4 times), Budapest Honvéd (3 times), MTK (3 times), Győr (twice), Diósgyőr and Vasas (once each). Videoton was also able to succeed to the group rounds in the 2012/13 season.

In overall, 2013 proved to be the worst season for Hungarian teams: all of them had to leave the contest after the first round, except Honvéd, leaving in the second.

Considering the whole region Hungarian football is not ranked at a very elegant place concerning funding and prizes: a comparison can be made with Slovakia, but Serbia and Slovenia pass us without even blinking.

Getting into the group round this year would be beneficial any of the teams: EUR 3.5 million is given to those who pass at least 8 matches to get into the rounds and further 6 matches with the group mates.

Featured image: Mlsz.hu

Source: Qubit.hu