Following a public consultation, the sports conflict-of-interest legislative amendment package has been submitted to the National Assembly and is already available on the parliament's website, Attila Kálnoki-Kiss, State Secretary responsible for sport, announced on his Facebook page on Saturday.
The politician wrote that this is a further step “towards separating sport from day-to-day politics and ensuring transparency.”
He added that the next important milestone is the general debate planned for early November, and that if no changes occur in the legislative process, the final vote on the law could take place by the end of November. “The clear aim of the legislation is to regulate the operation and management of sports organisations in the spirit of fair play that characterises the world of sport — so that professional activities and sports financing, as well as the extent thereof, are not determined by political connections,” said Attila Kálnoki-Kiss.
According to the general justification of the submitted draft, the objective is “to strengthen the operation of the sports sector free from political and governmental influence, as well as to reinforce the internal self-organisation and self-governance of the sports sphere.”
Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced at a government press conference on 18 September that the government would be introducing strict conflict-of-interest rules. He stated that Hungarian sport, “one of our national prides,” had over the years been gradually “turned into a political sphere of influence — the sports disciplines were taken over, and Fidesz politicians treated the federations and clubs as their own feudal estates.”
He announced that two new pieces of legislation would introduce changes including personal conflict-of-interest provisions, as well as a four-year ban on holding sports leadership positions in cases where serious irregularities in the use of subsidies had occurred at the relevant club or federation.
He said that once the legislation comes into force, ministers, state secretaries, members of parliament or the European Parliament, party presidents, government commissioners, ministerial commissioners, deputy state secretaries, and several other senior state officials would be barred from holding leadership positions in significant sports organisations with more than 500 registered athletes.
He noted that the ban would remain in effect for four years after leaving the relevant office — meaning that if someone is “from tomorrow” no longer a member of parliament or a state secretary, they would not be able to “parachute into” the leadership of a sports club.
Artificial intelligence was used for the translation of parts of the original Hungarian text.