The highest levels of Czech football are going through an ownership earthquake, basically not a week or a month goes by without another candidate from the ranks of successful businessmen appearing to join one of the first league clubs. After Zbrojovce, Dukla and Hradec Králové, it was now the turn of Sigma from Olomouc. Billionaire Karel Pražák would like to acquire this.
Karel Pražák and his Kaprain financial group have been making a lot of announcements about themselves for some time now – the long-time close associate of Petr Kellner and his PPF, which most of Kaprain’s top management also passed through, bought the media house Mafra and the chemical company Synthesia from Andrej Babiš, he is building near the Ruzyne airport in Tuchoměřice the generous entertainment complex Pop Airport, he is active in the development field in Kulaťák in Dejvice, he owns the premium golf-residence project Oaks Prague and he is also the owner of the ice hockey club Sparta.
And now he would like to expand his sports portfolio, but since there is no leading club in Prague, which is his business base (Sparta belongs to Daniel Křetínský and Slavia to Pavlo Tykač, Dukla is controlled by Petr Paukner with Matěj Turk and Bohemians are fans) , he had to look around a little further.
Central Bohemian club SK Hvozdnice, for which he played relatively recently as an amateur footballer in the regional championship, was out of the question – so he and his colleagues focused on SK Sigma Olomouc, which has been dealing with a change in its problematic property structure for a long time. In the spring, there was news that the not-so-well-known foreign investment group Blue Crow Sports Group wanted to acquire the majority in the club.
Negotiations on the sale of the club, in which SK Olomouc Sigma MŽ holds 77 percent and the rest belongs to the city (previously the club was co-owned by businessman Josef Lébr, but he gave up his share), dragged on and led to a dead end. After all, the interest of an unnamed foreign group was also discussed in the case of Zbrojovka from Brno, which after many vicissitudes ended up in the hands of the regional Chamber of Commerce and people around the influential lawyer Jaroslav Havel.
It has now appeared on the websites of Sigma Olomouc and Kaprain austere informationthat the club received a takeover offer from a financial group. “At its meeting on Monday, September 23, the association’s executive committee accepted this offer. The first result of the negotiations should be an indicative offer presented by the Kaprain group,” the statement says.
It is informational simple, there are no more details in it and most of it consists of a description of what Kaprain is. For example, the text states that “The Kaprain group has extensive experience in supporting professional and youth sports. Since 2019, he owns the most traditional domestic hockey club HC Sparta Prague. In addition, the hockey club HC Letci Letňany and Ice Arena Letňany and Kateřinky”.
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The Kaprain Group added to CzechCrunch’s question that it is also interested in 100 percent of the club, not just 77 percent of the association, which holds the majority. “We perceive the potential that lies dormant in the A-team and Sigma’s youth academy, and we are convinced that we can fully develop it so that the main team will long-term fight for leading positions in the league and the region and Czech football will benefit from its success. We can present our offer for the purchase of a majority or 100% stake in Sigma thanks to the experience we have gained not only in hockey Sparta, but also in supporting youth and amateur sports.” stated media representative of the group Ondřej Pechar.
Negotiations on the takeover of Sigma Olomouc are just another of several cases of well-known Czech business names trying to penetrate football, which is a relatively new situation. For a long time, domestic soccer did not have a very good reputation, but that is gradually changing, as the league clubs, led by Slavia and Sparta, managed to improve their image and reputation.
Slovan Liberec was recently bought by Ondřej Kania, investor Matěj Turek acquired a third in Dukla from coal baron Petr Paukner, much has also been written about the ownership changes in Zbrojovka from Brno, Slavia was acquired from the Chinese by Pavel Tykač, FC Hradec Králové is looking for a new owner…
