George F. Hemingway: I don’t think that the Hungarian national team will get higher with the current strategy

George F. Hemingway was the owner of the Budapest Honvéd between 2006 and 2019 – as before, M1 was also sharply critical of the current management of the red and black team.

“I am not interested in Hungarian football, but I am interested in Hungarian football itself. First of all, of course, the Honvéd, but also Hungarian football itself, because I was active in it for 13 years. I hope the Honvéd won’t have relegation problems. I was out at their match yesterday, I watched it, they played well and won. If you want to run a club, you can manage it in two ways: one is to learn the trade and surround yourself with the right people. I chose this path, it took me about three years to learn. The other way is that the owner just celebrates himself and hires competent people who will bring the profession and thus lead the club. There is no third. The owners who bought Honvéd from me seriously wanted to run it, they chose the second way. They didn’t want to get involved in management. After they hired incompetent, bad, useless, incompetent people, a downward spiral began, which they could no longer stop.”

With 39 points scored after 29 rounds, the Kispest team is only eighth in the Merkantil Bank League, so this year it will definitely not make it to the OTP Bank League.

“The number speaks for itself – the former president responded to the fact that 11 head coaches have visited Kispest in the last five years. – The most important thing is to employ competent people. People who can drive. For example, for many years I had coaches such as Tibor Sisa, Attila Supka or Marco Rossi – who were great professionals, and role models who represent the National Guard are important in the academy, and their hearts are drawn to the club. I consider it a mistake that Attila Supka’s contract was not renewed when I left. Because he is an excellent professional. It was the first step on the road that stretches to this point. In my view, we have not been able to stop the fall until now.”

Owner George F. Hemingway and top scorer Márton Eppel with the cup in 2017 (Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

And what is needed for the promotion of the Budapest Honvéd? Hemingway has quite a definite idea about this.

“For the Honvéd to get promoted, two things are necessary: ​​a very competent, first-class head coach and four players. The team has a good foundation, which requires four more footballers. I think that, at the moment, these four players cannot be acquired from Hungary, because those who would be needed are certainly under contract with other clubs. Foreigners are needed until they ascend. But in order to have foreign players, the owner must give up MLSZ’s “youth money” in NB II. This is realistic next year if it is implemented immediately. Promotion should be a two-year project. If I were to do it, I’d say it would take that long. We would need a serious inside defender, two attacking midfielders and a striker. I think they can solve the rest, because they have a very good young base, but you can’t go up with only children and young people.”

According to the businessman, in case of promotion, a completely pure academy team could be formed at the Honvéd within two or three years, and next to the Hungarians, legionaries should only be confirmed if it is worthwhile – for example, Davide Lanzafame’s players.

“The Honvéd has its place at the forefront. It has a great audience, more than two thousand people watched the match yesterday, four to five thousand fans would surely gather in the NB I. The club also has a national camp, spectators from abroad also come and are loved everywhere. So it would be worth bringing it up” he added.

The former sports manager also talked about what changes he would implement for the development of Hungarian football – according to Hemingway, the regulation of legionnaires and increasing the number of NB I would also be very important for long-term improvement.

“I would like to start by saying that I supported it when President Sándor Csányi reduced the number of players in the championship from 16 to 12. I thought it was good then, just as I think expansion is good now – I would increase it to 18 teams. Now there is money, and if the incoming money were properly distributed among the associations, no one would be favored, then there would be enough money to maintain an 18-team NB I. It is even more important that the number of legionnaires should be reduced to three, and the young people coming from the academies should be played. The result of this would be that the national team would become very strong in a period of five to ten years. Also, if there was no team that would be favored in the distribution of money, there would be fewer results in club football in the next two or three years, but after that there would be three or four Hungarian clubs that could achieve the results that Ferencváros has now. I really appreciate what the national team has achieved under Rossi’s guidance in recent years, but I think he could improve even more in this case. And that would be in the interest of Hungarian football, not to have a strong team in the league. The other thing: it is important for Hungarian football that a Szeged, Győr, Nyíregyháza, Pécs, Honvéd, Vasas – all of them should be in NB I. This would raise Hungarian football even more. Just as the goal was different ten years ago, it should be the same now.”

The former owner is aware that it is not possible to build every club on the model of Paks and Kecskemét, but at the same time, he does not see it as a direction at all to have so many legionnaires in the teams.

“Paks has the best club management in Hungary. I don’t know the people from Kecskemét, but the results show that they also do a very good job, and not for a lot of money. There is no reason for a Hungarian team to have more than three legionnaires, because the children come out of the academy. The Hungarian road must be one that can count on the domestic »harvest«. In Hungary, they cannot buy legionnaires like in England or Spain, this is not possible. Look at the old Albert’s Ferencváros and look at the current one – then you will see the difference, what football is. The Hungarian road should not be like this.”

Hemingway highlighted that it is a very good thing that more and more Hungarian talent is going abroad, the country produces a lot of talent, and this is good for our football.

Marco Rossi, who has managed the Hungarian national team since June 2018, was also discussed. As mentioned by the exkispest, the most important thing for the Italo-Hungarian coach is his human side, which is why he can be really effective – at the same time, according to him, the national team will not get much higher than the current strategy.

“Rossi was a good professional from the beginning. What is more important than this is that he is a good person and that he can bring other good people to his side. There are many coaches who are professionally good, but crappy people, characters, and characters. I was able to work together with Rossi, and of course he gained a lot of experience at the Honvéd, he learned a lot, which is how he was successful. I see that the Hungarian national team is now at the peak that can be achieved with this framework. I don’t think this strategy will get you any higher than that. Rossi is an excellent coach, the team gets a lot of support, which is right. But I think that in order for the national team to reach higher than this, they must follow the strategy that I indicated. So the league must be restructured and the number of legionnaires reduced. I am not saying that the strategy of Paks or Kecskemét is the only Hungarian way, but I think that determining the number of legionnaires would be very important.”

George F. Hemingway is sure that the national team will perform decently at the European Championship in Germany, and can also advance from its group.

“They have the ability to beat certain teams. You don’t have to dream of a European Championship title, but I think that a decent position will be enough, a decent result will be achieved. The bar should not be set so high that people see it as a failure, in fact, it is already a success if the Hungarian national team makes it to the European Championship. Getting some good results there is another success. I don’t think they will bring shame to Hungary. The national team can also advance from the group.”