Hungary’s PM uses soccer to push vision of right-wing Europe

In 2007, he founded the Puskas Soccer Academy in his home village of Felcsut, where he had played semi-professionally in the 1990s. His government also introduced a scheme where companies may donate money to sports clubs in lieu of paying corporate tax, an arrangement that since 2010 has netted clubs as much as $2.7 billion — money that critics say would have been better spent on Hungary’s ailing health care sector.

The government also directly funds the sport, paying for several of the 32 stadiums that have been built or renovated in Hungary since Orban assumed power, making the structures something of a symbol of state largesse.

This major injection of capital into soccer has made games a popular meeting place for politicians and the politically connected. Orban is often photographed at games with some of Hungary’s most successful businessmen, including billionaire Sandor Csanyi, Hungary’s second wealthiest person who is also the president of the Hungarian soccer federation and a UEFA vice president.

The games themselves have also become battlegrounds for displays of Hungary’s values. After a recent game in Budapest between Hungary’s national team and Portugal, UEFA received complaints that Hungarian fans were carrying homophobic banners.

Video from the game also showed Hungarian fans chanting “Cristiano homosexual!” at Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo during the match. In 2017, FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, fined the Hungarian soccer federation $22,000 after Hungarian fans directed the same chant at Ronaldo at a World Cup qualifier in Budapest.