"Until ten years ago, hearing songs like 'The Train Goes to Auschwitz' or growling at African actors was a matter of routine in our stands, but we decided we were going to go to war. At first I tried to talk, but I realized it didn't work - so we moved on to acts. ".
This is how Gabor Kovtov, president of Frantzvarosz, the largest football club in Hungary's history, opens the conversation we had with him at a Tel Aviv hotel.
Indeed, throughout European football, it is doubtful that work similar to what the Hungarian Member of Parliament has done in his vast club, which includes a football team and more than a dozen other branches, in terms of the war on hatred and racism.
Gabor Kovtov, Hungarian president Frantzvaros in the young team's game, Photo: Alan Schieber
The long process of his current visit to Israel culminates, with the goal of turning one of the group's biggest stars, Easton Toth, who saved Jews during World War II and paid for it with his life, into a world-renowned follower by the Yad Vashem Museum.
"As long as I fought racism, I could not even think of such an idea. But now something is happening at the club, the atmosphere has changed completely. Can you imagine our ultras, with tattoos, muscles and baldness, able to say of a Jewish player 'he is my hero'? Is it because we worked? It's very difficult for that. "
In the early 2000s, when Hungarian football seemed to be on the rise, it was Prady fans who took care to ruin their team precisely after years of Hungary looking for a way to get back on the pitch.
They stabbed two Millwell fans in a brawl, beat the coach of a rival team, and of course spiced it all up with racism towards blacks and Jews - leading to economic damage to the club, which failed to recruit players and saw the home stadium abandoned by the hooligans.
Frantzvarosh's Ultras in Action, Photo: Reuters
"First of all, to change the behavior of a football fan, you have to give him a comfortable feeling on his pitch - so we moved to play in a modern stadium. When I heard the racist chants, I gathered our ardent fans and tried to talk to them. I asked them ' .
Of course, this matter was not exactly accepted by thousands of members of the hard core, and was also criticized for invading privacy.
"They were waiting for me outside the house, threatening my life and the lives of my children," Kovtov says. .
To Gabor Kovtov, President of the Hungarian Republic.
Tired of it, Photo: Udi Citiate
"By the way, I think the most significant thing in this process was that our work was not done from the outside in or in a wink. It's not that I broadcast anything outside, but inside the house I winked and told them they could go on. I meant everything I did, and I was willing to go all the way. "The most important thing is that I can give it to other clubs that want to make a change. In the end, we succeeded, but it is not a process that has ended, but one that we are dealing with all the time."
"We will be happy if an Israeli plays with us"
The Hungarian team is now facing similar troubles, which, after the dizzying success of Euro 2020, failed to qualify for the World Cup, but are embroiled in bigger problems.
Her crowd has raged at the European Championships and continues to do so in away games across the continent, with everything the state champion has managed to curb in her body now draining into the national team games.
This led to no-crowd games and high fines.
"Our football is changing for the better, and of course my concern is first and foremost for Frantzvaros, but if we look at where we were in the past and where we are today - then it's just a handful of fans to face. Football in Hungary has become part of culture today, which it has not been for many years. Because families and children did not like to come to the stadiums - and now they come. This can also be seen in our achievements, in all departments. When parents come to their children's games at our club, I do not want them to sit sideways, but to have a cafeteria "We sign players, we tell them they are our partners, not our players. There is a process here that is bigger than football, important as it may be."
"Our football is changing for the better,
Beyond the value mission, the Hungarian president came to Israel to promote professional cooperation between his club, in its many branches, and Israeli sports.
"We would be very happy to see an Israeli footballer play with us, I think it is natural in light of the process we are going through," Kovtov declares.
They did not understand the question at all because it was not a matter for them. "
During the club's cooperation with the Israeli Embassy in Hungary, Kovtov also met with Yossi Sharabi, CEO of the Football Association, and also visited Kiryat Shalom and met with Moran Meiri. The Hungarians were happy last summer to see Dor Peretz with them in the team, Senior in Europe over the leadership of the Hungarian champion who is playing this season in the Europa League.
To understand how much Franzwaros is an empire, she is in charge of 32 Hungarian Olympic medalists, regularly participates in the Champions League in handball and handball, men and women, and employs thousands of people.
It is a factory that takes care of its children with homework help during the Corona period on the one hand, and on the other hand its fans can not forgive it for losing a championship, when second place is considered a diligent failure for the football team that has won the local title more than 30 times.
"Our fans tell us championships and know how to tell them everything, but ask them how many times have we finished in second place? They completely repress that, so no one knows."
