More finance for Hajduk from the city of Split.
The Split City Council has decided to give Hajduk’s Youth Football School a million kuna next year, as part of the initiative for helping sports clubs which are majority owned by the City. Marin Brbić, the chairman of Hajduk, was not completely satisfied, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on November 4, 2015.
“This is not enough. We had promises that the amount would be somewhat higher. However, this will be the first time since 2009 that the city budget will co-finance our youth teams. So, it is a step forward, since so far we have not received anything. But, we are still not satisfied. We expect that the city will try to help the club in another way as well. For example, due to a match that we had to play in Dugopolje because of the Ultra Music Festival, we had a loss of about a million kuna”, Brbić said.
The qualifying match of the UEFA Europa League against Sillamae Kalev from Estonia in July had to be played in Dugopolje due to the music festival held at Poljud Stadium. There were just 5,000 spectators, mostly owners of annual tickets who did not have to buy special tickets for the match. On Poljud, there would be at least 15,000 to 20,000 fans.
The dispute over Hajduk’s loss due to the concert has not yet been resolved. “We have lost some income, and we expect that it will be resolved in some way. As for the decision of the City Council to help us with our youth squads, it is certainly a step forward, but not enough. Especially since we do not expect that the city will give us cash, but we want to somehow reduce the financial claims that the city has towards Hajduk”, Brbić explained.
Hajduk still owes to the City of Split around 26 million kuna as the guarantee for a loan which has recently been prolonged (to October 2016), and for which Hajduk will no longer have to pay penalty interest on arrears.
