Fiorentina challenges Viktor Orban's team in Conference: "exaggerated" stadium and money raining down, the story of Puskas Akademia - World Online News
There Florentine will face the past and the football present of Viktor Orbán. On the occasion of the preliminaries of Conference League the purple club will play against the Hungarians of Puskas Academya team from the small village – with less than 2000 inhabitants – of Felcusutthe town where the Hungarian Prime Minister was born. And several years ago in the village’s neighborhood, a young Orban he discovered his boundless passion for football: it is said that a government meeting was postponed because he was busy with the club’s spring retreat.
It was under the Prime Minister that the history and fame of Puskas Akademia changed radically: initially founded as a youth team, with his return to the Hungarian government – and thanks to a huge funding through the “Tao Relaunch Program” – it was built Pancho Arenathe jewel in the crown and cathedral in the desert of Hungarian football. Even today, Orban owns a house near the 3,800-seat facility, the same one that has been organizing youth tournaments every year since 2008. A team submerged in money in order to become competitive: goal achieved. Stable in the first division since 2017, Puskas Akademia also came close to a sensational first place that would have been worth the national championship title.
In the name of Ferenc Puskás “Pancho”, like the nickname of the Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas with which it was called at the time of real Madrid. Chosen in his honor, Orban went to the hospital to tell him – who was now dying – the news and to approve the naming agreement. “He would have certainly loved what is happening in Felcsút,” his wife said. Inaugurated in 2014, specifically to host a friendly against the Whitesthe arena has a capacity of 3,500 spectatorsmore than double the number of inhabitants of Felcsut. The entire plant cost 12.4 million euros and a thousand tons of wood were used to build the suggestive stands designed by the Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz.
An architectural work, in all respects, which however was not appreciated by everyone. During the inauguration there was a demonstration by some opposition groups for the “monument to corruption and megalomania“, considering the construction of such a stadium (and at such high prices) excessive for such a small city.
The Tao Program A program born in 2011 that siphons off millions of euros in the coffers of sports clubs and associations: I’m going to tell you nowliterally “corporate tax”. To date, in football, there have been registered investments For 923 billion Hungarian forints, 36.3 entered in the coffers of the Puskas Academy. And to think that the second most funded club received 522 million Hungarian forints, numbers that cannot go unnoticed. Figures and unbridgeable gaps that Orban has always kept hiddeneven in words: “The Tao is a success story. Not only has it brought more resources to sports and made it easier for associations to function, but, more importantly, a relationship has been established between companies and sports organizations”, he declared to the microphones of Unknown Sports. “Until this program was introduced, the world of business and sports had no relationship. I don’t think it’s right to regret having spent money on sports fields or for children to play.”
