Entrepreneur Petr Paukner, owner of football Dukla, is beating up the situation in Czech football. He doesn’t like the way the clubs manage their television and advertising rights. “Should a transparent tender be issued for their sale, I do not understand the role of an intermediary,” he says.
At last year’s General Meeting, the management of the FACR took place. Do you welcome that?
I see this as the beginning of something that should be better than under the previous leadership. We also supported Mr Fousek as President, and I very much appreciate Mr Šmicr, who abandoned his personal ambitions and resigned from the elections so that the forces would not shatter. But every fairy tale has a beginning and an end. Therefore, I would like to evaluate the change after a longer period of time.
Dukla was one of the few entities in the open elections to oppose Roman Berbr’s candidacy for vice-president for the Czechs. Do you feel satisfied now that it has become clear how this person and the football system he has created have harmed him?
I am rather glad that we did not get along in this matter, ie Dukla Prague. We did not get mad because I considered it humanly unworthy to apply for the favor of a person whose methods I did not agree with and who were negatively affected by Czech football.
You openly opposed his candidacy, then Dukla came down from the highest competition, the next year she was not allowed to play, which she won. From your point of view, does this have a connection?
As for the descent, one or two matches were strange, in my opinion we were wronged. I remember mainly the match with Zlín (round 24, 1: 2) and at least one more. But we also caused it with poor performances and results. I consider the play-off after 2019/2020 to be a classic pigsty. The league was not completed, the superstructure was not completed. At the same time, Brno, which was also to play in the playoffs, eventually advanced administratively. So either he had to advance from the second league only the first, or all those who had the right to compete for the highest competition. Or no one, or a barrage was to be played between the second-league contenders. But that’s how everyone else got what they wanted, only Dukla nothing. It was a huge injustice that touched the players and evoked feelings of futility. In addition, I got the feeling that no one cares about Dukla, that she is not the subject of any interest groups that were unfortunately in Czech football. However, this is a matter for the league association, if something does not change in it, as has changed in the FACR, I am afraid we will not see better years.
However, the management of the association declared that Dukla would be compensated, it was suggested that financially. It happened?
No, we didn’t receive anything. We receive funding according to the guidelines as a second-league club, in the first year after the relegation they were a bit higher according to the rules, now they are stable.
Do you still want to support the club?
As I said, I welcome the change in leadership and I feel that the situation has improved with regard to the referees, even though the new commission chairman, Radek Příhoda, is not easy. However, the trend may continue. Unfortunately, professional clubs are under the LFA, whose work I have more and more reservations about.
What exactly bothers you?
It’s still the same: selling TV and advertising rights. I am more and more upset because I do not understand the role of a mediator in choosing a partner. Why not make a transparent selection procedure, which, however, should not be managed by the LFA, only controlled, but by a professional audit firm that deals with this activity? Then let the LFA inform the others of the result. The presidency knows exactly how much the rights are sold for, but who does not know are the individual members, ie the clubs. At least I don’t know.
You have long criticized the fact that clubs cannot look into business contracts. Has it improved?
It didn’t improve. And this is the case when I have to say: why it’s not allowed. The answer is: if it was transparent, snow-white, then someone wouldn’t mind having someone look at them. However, I do not want to deal with the past, I am interested in the future, if the rights are to be resold, why not do it in a transparent tender. Why are arguments being sought that it is not possible otherwise. This raises the clear suspicion that it is not as clean as it is presented.
You are still looking for a partner for Dukla Prague so that you do not have to pull the whole activity from your own resources. Prosper?
It’s very complicated, Dukla is a second league club. But it is difficult for everyone, even for the major leagues. Nobody comes here from abroad, if someone managed to sell the club to foreign hands, I would just congratulate him and show him great respect. I didn’t succeed and I don’t have much hope that it would work out. In addition, I have one condition that can discourage buyers. I refuse to sell the club to anyone with the intention of completing the work of destruction, to sell out the staff and close everything. I wouldn’t like that. Dukla resurrected when she was almost dead, I invested a lot of money in her to keep her. If the circle closed after nine years, it would be a great vanity.
Will you reveal how much Dukla cost you?
The amount is already approaching 400 million crowns.
Your business trades in energy, it might seem to be thriving in an energy crisis that has affected the world. It is so?
The opposite is true. Energy prices have risen and the trend will continue at the same pace and pace set by the European Union. It will affect companies that sell gas, including mine, as well as consumers, factories and the general public. With a few exceptions, all companies are doing very poorly. No one could absolutely predict the development of prices. When customers thrive, they want more energy that retailers have to buy. When they buy more, they pay an increased price on the market, which has a catastrophic impact on their economy.
I think that in a year or two there will be only three or four large companies such as ČEZ, EON and Pražská energetika. The market will be semi-monopolized again. This situation can help energy producers, this is the example of CEZ, which, with increased interest in energy, could have started already shut down units because they were uneconomical, but this has changed. I will not hide, I have made a lot of money in the current state and there is no indication that it could improve significantly.
