55 million euros: This is a conservative estimate of the amount of public money that the Hungarian government has spent on football academies and stadiums located in Hungarian communities living in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia since 2013. Some of the supported clubs are successful, others are rather obscure.
Is this generosity just another sign of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s irrational love for this sport? Or is there a business rationale – and are there are people who profit from these investments? These are the questions that investigative outlets Átlátszó (Hungary) and Átlátszó Erdély (Romania) set out to explore.