The whole of Europe lives on football, the EURO 2024 European Championship is being held in Germany until July 14. And we also dedicated this episode of the FLOW program to football, where Tomáš Křivda, general manager of Sparta Prague, this year’s champion of the 1st Czech Football League, accepted an invitation.
Of course, he follows the European Football Championship and goes to the matches in Germany. He praises the organization and the effort for sustainability and the lowest possible carbon footprint, which the organizers strive for. Among other things, by providing visitors with discounted train fares, the championship’s partner is the German DB railways.
“I will also go to one match by train and I will combine it with a ride in an electric car, which Sparta has now bought for its fleet as part of its efforts to be more sustainable. It is a big topic for us,” Křivda said in an interview. What does he think about Chinese sponsors at the European championship?
“It proves the fact that finances are decisive and that there is interest in European football in the world, and it therefore makes sense for Chinese companies to buy a partnership with the European championship. However, we at Sparta try to follow the path of local partners and cooperate mainly with Czech companies or at least companies that have a significant presence in the Czech Republic,” added Křivda, who is very satisfied after a year in the position of boss. Sparta is doing very well and won its 38th title this year.
And the current charity auction of luxury Swiss watches of the brand Perrelet is also related to the number 38. “The auction will end on Thursday 27th June at 6pm and I believe we will sell the watch for significantly more than the standard selling price. It is a Swiss brand watch in top quality, its retail price is 170,000 crowns. Every fan has a chance to participate in the auction on the Dobrobot server,” added the head of Sparta, adding that the money will go to charitable purposes: the club will provide the proceeds to the Prague 7 district for a tutoring project for elementary school children.
According to him, there is an increasing interest in Spartan souvenirs, and the club will open its first fan shop at the airport in Prague in the summer.
According to Křivda, Sparta has fundamentally changed in recent years. It is no longer just a sports club, but also an independent media and has many other non-football activities. In addition to the sporting ones, he also considers the fact that the club is doing well in terms of attendance to be a great success.
The Letná Stadium was sold out during all matches and the club is far from able to satisfy all interested parties. That is also why Křivda is looking forward to moving to the new premises of the stadium with a capacity of 35,000 seats, which Sparta should have in Strahov.
“Summer is already small for us. I believe that we will move there in 2032 at the latest and a magnificent stadium will be built in Strahov that will meet world standards,” said Křivda, adding that it will be an investment worth four and a half billion crowns, paid for exclusively from private sources without the use of subsidies.
What activities does Sparta have outside of football? How is she doing in business? How are players selected for the team? And why did Danish coach Brian Priske leave the team? We discussed not only these topics in detail in the FLOW video interview with the club’s CEO Tomáš Křivda.
Link to the auction here.
