After a rich playing career, he became MIROSLAV ŠATAN successful official. He started in Slovak hockey as a general manager, and then in 2019 he also took over the management of Slovak hockey.
He is running for president again. He is ready to face criticism on Friday, but he believes in his vision and the continuity he wants to present.
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Less than a month ago, Slovak hockey players won bronze at the Olympics. The fans were excited, they all praised you. Today, the hockey movement is again very stuffy in connection with the election of the president of the association. Did you expect that?
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He expected. The dissatisfaction of some extra-league clubs is long-lasting. Their owners could be expected to choose their candidate. We remember how they wanted to break away recently and have a private league. So it didn’t surprise me.
The candidate is Ľudovít Jurinyi, who stood by your side three years ago. How do you perceive his person and what disrupted your relationship?
At that time, I welcomed the fact that he came as a young manager and wanted to get involved in our activities. He was ambitious, together with Martin Kohút they acted as marketing managers of SZĽH.
Unfortunately, his work was absent, the other manager did everything and Mr. Jurinyi wrapped it up after two months. Since then, our relationship has not developed.
Mr. Jurinyi proved the activity only in an effort to transfer Liptovský Mikuláš’s license to a private person. He tried three times on the executive committee. It never passed.
Relations have cooled, and my opponent has also stopped going to the executive committee. He didn’t come in person for about a year, he joined here and there at a distance.
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Haven’t you tried to settle your relationship with a four-eyed debate?
All members of the Executive Committee are regularly invited to the next meeting. If he wanted to improve something, he could come up with ideas. He didn’t come up with anything that concerned youth or anything like that. Apart from the aforementioned Liptovský Mikuláš license, I don’t know anything.
He says clubs are afraid to express themselves. I don’t know what he’s talking about. Last week we went to clubs, we had meetings in three places in Slovakia. Everyone was given space to speak.
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We talked about the draft budget that we will present at the congress. We also introduced the reform of the youth categories. The discussion was constructive and brought several process improvements.
We also asked for feedback on what we were doing wrong so that we could work better in the future. Mr Jurinyi did not even come to this meeting. When he doesn’t come, he can’t express himself. Purposefully criticizing the grains of work is the easiest.
The league is significantly divided. Strong clubs such as Slovan, Zvolen, Košice and Michalovce have expressed their support. The rest of the ligists lean towards the opponent. How do you explain such a polarization of opinions?
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