Prague – The First Football League is entering its most lucrative season in history. The League Football Association (LFA) will distribute at least 660 million crowns between professional clubs. Approximately 85 percent will go to first league teams, the remaining roughly 15 percent will go to second division clubs. The relegated teams will be compensated by the so-called golden parachute, solidarity bonuses from UEFA have also increased. Representatives of the association stated this at today’s presentation in Prague’s Cubex Center on Pankrác.
The bonuses are tempting. Thanks to the national coefficient, the Czech champion will advance directly to the regular season of the Champions League, which guarantees him a minimum profit of 15.64 million euros, i.e. approximately 395 million crowns. However, thanks to the results of the tenders, everyone else can also look forward to high sums.
The division between the clubs of the first league will stand on five pillars, which will determine the amount of remuneration for each of them. These pillars include: basic equal share; placement bonus including relegation allowance; bonus for progressing to the qualification of UEFA club competitions; a share of television viewing and an extraordinary bonus for positive management of LFA.
“The amount that the clubs will divide each year is unprecedented in Czech professional sports. It will be three times larger than before. Each club in the first league will receive 24 million crowns, and cup participants will get another 18 million crowns. Another motivational element is further grading according to placement. For those descending, the parachute is ten million crowns,” summed up LFA Executive Director Tomáš Bárta.
Both professional competitions will now bear the name of the betting company Chance. “Solidarity amounts from UEFA have also increased. Each club that does not make it to the regular season of one of the cups will receive 18 million crowns,” said Bárta.
Fan interest is booming. In the last year, 1,782,382 spectators arrived at the matches of the highest competition. The average per match thus rose to 6435, which is the second highest number in the independent history of the Czech league. Only the year 1996/97, when the average was 7155, did better in this direction. Breaking the record is another goal of the LFA.
“The level of culture in the stadiums and in general the work of the clubs with the fans went up within the framework of both competitions, which is reflected in the visits. I am convinced that with the functional cooperation of the LFA and the clubs we can conquer the historical maximum in the beginning year,” said the association’s marketing director Daniel Hajný .
The management of the competition confirmed that, in cooperation with broadcaster O2 TV, a center for video referees has been prepared, from which all first league matches will be controlled. At the same time, a calibrated FIFA-certified offside line will be used right from the start of the season.
Sport football LFA second 1st league PHOTO
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
