Partizan On Sale!

Which is more valuable: half of the Serbian telecommunications company or the soccer club? The soccer club, of course, but with the condition that the team's roster include eleven soccer players who can play at the level of Predrag Mijatovic!

The calculation is simple: the Serbian authorities have sold 49% of Telekom for around one billion dollars (1.7 billion DM), and the club Real from Madrid asks for 150 million dollars (11 times 150 million equals one billion and 650 million dollars) as compensation for Pedja's transfer to another club. Although it may seem to you that we are adding here that which can not be added (and, by the way, J.P. Morgan claims that he has invented the way to make such calculations in the modern economy), the point here is that soccer today has become big business, and it is no longer only "the most important secondary thing in the world" but a money-making engine.

A good number of the European soccer teams are privately owned. However, the British went even one step further - they entered the stock market. The first to do so were Totenhem and Manchester United a decade ago.

Although the Yugoslav clubs are mostly managed as though they were privately owned, they are officially parts of the sporting clubs; that is, they are within some sort of "socially owned" companies. Riding on the wave of the current stories about privatization, as the Vreme weekly has learned, the Belgrade's soccer club Partizan wants to become a private corporation. If the existing resistance within the old, conservative streams of generals and politicians in the administration is removed, the privatization and the later emergence on the stock market is to be led by an expert from the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche, who has also brought Manchester United into the London market of securities. The idea is that after the evaluation, one half of Partizan's stock will remain the property of the Sporting Club Partizan which is the founder of the club and the social carrier of its property. The second half of the stock should be placed in the hands of the employed, formerly employed and fans (as a gift and through sale, with and without discount).

But as Partizan's officials believe that in the beginning no one should hold the majority shares, additional stocks would be issued (the so called "additional capitalization") after this initial ownership distribution of the club. The value of the new shares should equal half of the estimated club's value, and it is expected that they will be bought first of all by the sponsors (from the well known Team 11). This way, the ownership over the soccer club Partizan would be distributed in the following manner: one third to the club, one third to the employed and one third to the sponsors. It is not known whether this model, which matches the one that the Politika supports, has anything to do with the fact that Dragan Hadzi Antic, the director of the Politika, is on the managerial staff of the club.

According to the new law about privatization, which is right now being adopted in the Serbian Parliament, Partizan will not get the chance to realize the idea of one thirds, because article 21 of the law about ownership transformation says that before any kind of privatization, 10% of the shares, out of the total amount of equity of the company, has to be transferred to the republic's Fund for the Pension and Disability Insurance. This way the pensioners will also see some benefit from the money that circulates in soccer. And this money is big.

Judging by the conversation that the author of this article once had with Vladimir Cvetkovic, the director of the Crvena zvezda, the situation is not any better there either. Mr. Cvetkovic was ready to talk about every aspect of the club except its finances. Not a single financial data (about total income, circulation, expenses, not to mention profit), according to Mr. Cvetkovic's words, was for public knowledge! As if it was the private ownership of a man (while in the real world, the companies that are registered in the stock market must open all their financial records to the public).

However, the situation is the worst in Russia. Around the middle of this month, not far from Moscow, Larisa Nechajeva, the financial director of the soccer club Spartak, was found drilled with bullets beside her car. She was in charge of dealing with the sponsors of the Russian champion, which is considered the important fact in the investigation of the causes of this crime.

The destiny of Valentin Sic, the president of the Russian hockey league, was no better; he was killed two months earlier. He has sharply warned against the mingling of the Mafia's "businessmen" into the sporting business.

Will soccer turn into a regular business? Hardly, because it is almost certain that it will always hold a special place in the lives of the European and South American nations. Nevertheless, the "most beautiful game" - as once Arantes do Nascimento referred to it - requires great players. And the best way to create the great player is to conduct a great business.