The famous manager and expert Vyacheslav Zakhovaylo, who has long lived and worked in the Czech Republic, detailed on his Facebook page how the financing of “Victoria” Plzen is currently structured — the opponent of Kyiv’s “Dynamo” in tomorrow’s match of the 5th round of the main stage of the Europa League.
— “Dynamo” (Kyiv) against “Victoria” (Plzen). Everyone is interested in how the Czech club is financed. Well, I will inform you. A good example and experience for Ukrainian clubs.
Two years ago, in March, after eleven years, the football club “Victoria Plzen” changed owners. For health reasons and personal reasons, the then-president Tomas Paclik left the club, and the sole owner became general manager Adolf Shadek. Shortly after that, searches for a new investor began, with whom the West Bohemian football club “Victoria” could continue its development. It did not have sufficient capital itself, and “Victoria” was recently balancing on the brink of survival. Now the 48-year-old manager can relax, as after difficult searches he managed to attract new investors.
“Victoria” announced that the Austrian-Swiss business group and the specially created company FCVP GmbH, headed by businessmen Martin Dellenbach and Raphael Landtaler, are joining the club as a majority shareholder. Adolf Shadek will retain an unspecified minority stake and will also remain in the management of the club, where he will serve as chairman of the board. Along with him, Dellenbach and Landtaler will join the council. Neither party has commented on the price of the deal.
In recent years, the budget of “Victoria” has been estimated at about 300 million crowns (12 million euros).
FCVP GmbH, based in Austria, becomes the new owner of the controlling stake in the club. They are backed by very ambitious people with extensive experience in European football.
In the last two years, the coach of “Victoria” financed the club from his own funds and, according to him, to save it he had to borrow up to 150 million crowns (6 million euros).
“My long-term goal was to find partners who would ensure the financial stability of the club, have high ambitions, motivation, and a desire to work conceptually and promote our club forward. Moreover, these are partners from Western Europe who have a long-term vision.”
The new shareholders bring experience from clubs like “Rapid” (Vienna) or “Basel” from West Bohemia.
57-year-old Swiss Martin Dellenbach became wealthy thanks to a large chain of car washes, also worked as a team manager in motorsport, and since 2010 has been actively involved in football. He worked as the head of the youth team of FC “Basel,” and last year became an investor in the Austrian first division club “TSV Hartberg,” where he is building a large football academy. In May of this year, he also became the director of the Austrian second division team “Licht-Leitld Lafnitz” — and now, with the addition of “Victoria,” he wants to take advantage of the potential interaction between the three football clubs.
“Together with the academy in “Laufnitz,” which has two teams (Austrian Landesliga and 2nd Austrian Bundesliga), “Hartberg” (1st Austrian Bundesliga) and “Victoria” (top division of the Czech Republic and European cups), everything fits perfectly into our educational concept. Young talented players are given a great opportunity to make a name for themselves and to establish an international career thanks to the academies and cooperation of professional teams. This is our philosophy,” explains Dellenbach.