Lukashenko calls for spending limits in hockey, football

MINSK, 30 January (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko instructed the government to develop approaches to peg remuneration of labor in local team sports clubs to their results. The head of state made this statement at the government session held on 29 January to discuss state support measures for sports organizations.

Vice Premier Anatoly Tozik drew attention of the participants of the meeting to the situation with the level of salaries in team sports clubs. “The clubs have every right to address these issues independently taking into account their achievements in sports. I do understand that salaries in these clubs should be high enough if the clubs are self-sufficient,” the Vice Premier noted. With this, the official believes that using the budget support and preferences it is illogic to get high salaries, and here there is a need for some limits or regulations.

The head of state noted that abroad, in NHL in particular, they set certain spending limits on wages: “They have come through it already. I do not understand why the heads of our federations and the government do not bring this scheme in.”

“There will be no prolongation of the decree (No. 497 “Concerning state support for sports organizations” of 3 November 2011 – BelTA’s note) unless you regulate the issue. The wages fund should be well-defined and adjusted. Outstanding performance will bring you benefits from sponsor and other resources. If we do not tame this appetite for high salaries, not peg remuneration to something, we will not know how to spend this money. Neither sports schools nor the material base get anything in this case. We need a certain system here,” the President stressed.

“Our hockey and football players are top-paying while the result is almost the opposite,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

Grodno Oblast Governor Semyon Shapiro also touched upon the issue of transfers and wages of athletes, noting that there is a certain fight for players between the clubs. It turns out sometimes that a foreign player costs lower and, with this, demonstrates a good play.

Chairman of the Belarusian Football Association Sergei Rumas stressed that limits on sponsorship and wages should not harm the clubs. “If a club finds resources, sponsors, why should not it offer high salaries? But for sponsors and a good budget, BATE would not have been able to enter the group stage and perform so good. Today the documents say BATE has high wages of Br225 million. But there is no note there that up to 80% of the bonus they got for reaching the group stage has been spent on players’ salaries. These are not budgetary resources. But for this bonus, the salaries would have been three times lower,” he said.

The President said: “We should not forget that there are the material base and sports schools as a source for BATE’s future growth. We should take this into account too.”

The President stressed that the main thing here is to create equal conditions while the wages level should directly depend on the results.

“Amendments should be brought in to regulate the amount of money spent on players’ wages. An athlete should get bonuses for his results, achievements. Work out some sort of a barrier and place everyone into the level playing field,” the head of state instructed.