Page 27 - bne_Magazine_July_2017

bne July 2017 Cover story I 27
CENTRAL EUROPE:
When sleeping giants meet
Tim Gosling in Prague
"T
via Praha announced to the crowds lining the terraces in red-and-white that the Eden Arena, which sits on a busy crossroads in the down-at-heel Vrsovice neighbourhood of the Czech capital, is finally owned by the club.
Illustrating the dubious dealing that almost brought the club to its knees
in 2015, no one knows from whom the shiny stadium, opened in 2008, was purchased. However, CEFC –
the Chinese owner resurrecting the battered Czech football giant – made sure the whole country knew who it was that bought back the family silver.
Two weeks later, Slavia was celebrat- ing a first league title since 2009. Since the arrival of CEFC in 2015, when the club sat on the brink of bankruptcy, the revival of this bas- tion of Czech national independence is a clear signal to the wider public that the Chinese investor is a reliable guardian for the country’s treasures.
“Slavia Prague, together with Skoda car and the animation figure Little Mole, are brand names representing the Czech national spirit,” CEFC said in a statement following the title win.
“Spending tens of millions of euros on saving a sports club was not for profit making,” suggested Chairman
ady jsme doma!” (Here we are home!) was the cry in late May as Sla-
Slavia Praha's Eden Arena
CEFC bought a plethora of relatively small assets – including a brewery and several travel sector companies – in a frenzied bout of buying in 2015, with an estimated spend of more than €1bn.
As part of that drive, a 60% stake in Slavia was bought from Jiri Simane in September 2015. The local entrepre- neur also sold the Chinese a stake in the Travel Service airline. The follow- ing November, CEFC raised its hold- ing in the football club to 99.96%.
The energy and banking conglomerate has done little since to discuss the apparent randomness of its purchases with the media. The assumption is that the rescue of Slavia from years of shady owners and dodgy deals is meant to help pave the way to bigger deals.
“It’s a propaganda tool, or a way
to establish funding in the Czech Republic,” suggests Jiri Pehe, a well- known political commentator and lapsed Slavia fan. “If CEFC just turned up [to buy major assets] there would be a lot of suspicion. Investing in Slavia to win the league they prove themselves.”
While the terraces at Eden are largely happy with the performances on
the pitch and the careful respect for tradition that the Chinese have shown, CEFC is just as shy with Slavia fans, says Ondrej Kreml, an editor at fans' forum www.slavistickenoviny.cz.
“Spending tens of millions of euros on saving a sports club was not for profit making”
Ye Jianming, but an effort to “save a Czech traditional brand, and to show its respect to Czech soccer and culture”.
The mysterious investor, which over the past decade has emerged from obscu- rity to become the sixth largest private company in China, has shown without doubt that it prefers to let its invest- ments do its talking for it. Encouraged by an effort to attract capital from the east led by President Milos Zeman,
“The fans know the Chinese are here to make themselves look good and prove they can build a Czech busi- ness, but we never hear from them. Everything comes from Tvrdik.”
Former defence minister Jaroslav Tvrdik is viewed as having almost grounded flag carrier CSA during a stint at the controls. However, he is now the point man for the efforts of President Zeman to attract investment
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