Željezničar reduces debts, southern stand construction and online ticketing soon

(Patria) - At the club premises of FK Željezničar, which celebrates its 102nd anniversary today, club president Edis Kovačević and club director Amira Uzunović addressed the public today.

Most of the discussion was about the club's financial situation and infrastructure projects.

"We expect the balance on December 31st to be 4.3 million KM. When we started the rescue operation for our club, we will succeed in halving the debt by the end of the year. We paid all our regular obligations, salaries, contributions. Those costs amount to approximately 320 thousand marks per month. Every first of the month when you wake up, you are at a deficit of 320 thousand marks. In addition to securing those funds, we managed to halve the debt. That is a big step forward. Titles and everything are useless if you find yourself in a situation where your account is blocked after a year. We don't want to get into that situation. All of this is going quite well," said Kovačević.

He admitted that Željezničar is not yet in a position to invest in the first team.

When we look at our team's budget compared to the competition, we are certainly not at the top, but rather 6th-7th in the league, because we are burdened by the past. This year alone, we will reduce the debt by 2.5 million. That's about 200,000 per month. If you were to invest that in sports, the results would be more visible. Given that we inherited the situation we did, the priority now is to deal with the past. We are close to achieving our goal, all our fans are aware, we have patience, we have it with our first team that played in Europe, achieved a great success, made us proud, and we are sticking to our strategy so that it is long-term sustainable. We no longer want to think about licenses at Grbavica, that will be a given and should not be a topic.

The club director emphasized that the southern stand project will begin.

"We plan, if everything goes well, to submit a request for a building permit for the southern stand today or tomorrow. I must mention that all the necessary documentation and processes were carried out in synergy with all the relevant structures. We expect that by November at the latest this year, we will start with more significant steps regarding the construction of the southern stand.

The next step is 'Plavi štit' (Blue Shield), which is a marketing program. We have enormous potential for generating new revenue, and the focus will be on smaller companies, i.e., small businesses," she said.

As for the second infrastructure project, the eastern stand, the club is currently in the process of finding a business unit model. The plan is to submit the documentation for the permit by the end of the year.

Regarding new projects, online ticket sales will also be introduced.