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Judgment call: soccer's last arbiter

An association chief who has heard every sob story and excuse

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 31st, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Alexander Károlyi is the last man you want to find yourself in front of if you're a Czech player or manager; yet, for all his tough-guy demeanor, he's the sport's biggest fan.
There are not many questions that will catch Alexander Károlyi off guard. Working as an attorney, business consultant and the chairman of the Czech Football Association (ČMFS) disciplinary committee, he’s challenged by dozens of people a day and is used to changing gears on the fly.
But, when asked the color of his eyes, he hesitates — at least for a second.
“They’re brown-green,” he replies after moment.
“I see,” says a visiting reporter, without further explanation.
Károlyi leans back in his chair and is visibly piqued about the point of the question. Usually, it’s he who is clearly in charge. Károlyi’s the one asking the questions during hearings and interviews with players, and he’s used to directing them his way. And he’s noticeably uncomfortable when he senses he’s not pulling the strings now. Suddenly, no longer able to resist, Károlyi demands an explanation.
Then it sinks in: “You mean how many players dare to look into my eyes during disciplinary sessions, correct? Well, some players manage it — but most don’t.”
With the ice broken, there’s now no risk of pat three-syllable answers to questions and Károlyi goes into narrative mode.
The 54-year-old lawyer with an imposing, heavyset figure, double chin and deep voice, is not the man Czech soccer players want to be sitting in front of. When they are, it’s generally because they are compelled to explain their questionable behavior on the pitch. Often, the result is a punishment in the form of a fine or suspension.
“Naturally,” Károlyi admits, “I’m not the most popular official within the soccer community. But I try to be fair. Players who’ve retired meet with me, and together we recall their sinful years.”
In the lecturer’s footsteps
Károlyi has been recognized as “Mr. Justice” in Czech soccer since 1988, when he was appointed chairman of the Czechoslovak Football Association disciplinary committee — an executive body that works as the watchdog of fair play on and off the field.
His appointment came after 10 years of working as a committee member.
But, Károlyi reveals, his involvement in the disciplinary committee really came about by accident.
“As a university law student in the late 1970s, I worked on a thesis on family law and I spent a long time with my lecturer Emil Banič, who then worked as a Supreme Court judge and as chairman of the soccer disciplinary committee,” he says. “Apart from family law, we also discussed soccer.”
In 1978, Banič offered Károlyi a spot on the feared and respected committee. Károlyi took it as a challenge.
“I played soccer on a competitive level as a youth, but a knee injury made me end my career at an early age. I may have talked back to referees from time to time, but I was never sent off the pitch,” Károlyi recalls.
More than laughable
Having worked in that leadership role for 19 years now, Károlyi is currently the longest-serving official working in ČMFS top management.
He says he has probably dealt with every possible violation you could think of.
“There were cases of physical tackles, doping, false accusations, corruption and others,” Károlyi says.
One of the affairs he’s still most amused by is one that he dealt with in the mid-1970s involving the well-recognized Hradec Králové player Miloš Mejtský. The midfielder, who also played on the Czechoslovak national team, signed a transfer agreement, obviously against the rules, to both Slavia Praha and to an amateur club in a village called Malšova Lhota.
When the disciplinary committee began its inquiry, it invited representatives of both Slavia and Malšova Lhota to provide their sides of the story. Károlyi still can’t stop laughing when he recalls the response of the Malšova Lhota rep on the subject of whether or not it was suspicious for a national team player to transfer to a village club.
“No,” the official said. “We’ve been short of players, and we’ll take anyone.”
Final result: Malšova Lhota had to continue its recruiting elsewhere.
On the other end of the spectrum, Kárloyi recalls, the most troubling investigation was that of the large-scale corruption scandal that broke in March 2004 after police wiretapping revealed that club officials and referees were regularly holding conversations about fixing results in the Gambrinus league.
To this day, however, many lay the blame for the extent of the corruption at least in part on the disciplinary committee’s failure to see the big picture.
Complaints about corrupt referees had been voiced by various officials for some time. Instead of proper investigations, however, the committee often sanctioned those who complained for harming the good name of Czech soccer — largely because they were unable to submit specific evidence to support their allegations.
Károlyi rejects the suggestion some have made that his committee had wanted to sweep corruption under the rug.
“We were the very first sports association in this country directly confronted with corruption,” Károlyi pointed out. “We had to proceed very carefully in order to avoid a situation in which we ban someone and he later takes us to civil court seeking compensation.”
Eventually the corruption evidence reached critical mass, of course.
When the police submitted the evidence, Károlyi’s committee spent more than 3,000 hours poring over it. As committee members went over the wiretap recordings, investigators were often shocked — and sometimes amused — by the vulgar language used in the conversations. Some recordings later leaked to the public became so famous that there were even parodies performed on stage in a play written by comedians Jiří Lábus and Petr Čtvrtníček.
Károlyi still insists that he himself has never found the wiretap evidence something to laugh about.
“I understand that the public found it funny, but I was really disillusioned by this …” he says. “I would’ve never thought that Czech soccer could sink so deep.”
Thus far no prison sentences have resulted, but fines of up to 900,000 Kč ($42,000) have been levied, along with probation sentences, bans for managers and major point penalties for clubs.
Giving up gossip
If Károlyi’s still popular with anyone, it’s those hungry for rumors from the inner sanctum of the Czech soccer world. Clients of Károlyi’s consulting firm (even after he has served nearly two decades on the committee, soccer doesn’t pay the bills) have a seemingly insatiable appetite for insider tales, and often stop by the offices of the company he owns and directs, Pragocon.
“Most customers are well aware of my side activity as the soccer judge, and it’s true that the first question is usually soccer-related,” he says. “All the men ask whether I can either confirm or deny some rumor. And the women are interested, too.”
Professional ethics, of course, precludes him from revealing what most are after. But Károlyi admits that he doesn’t mind talking with customers about soccer in general.
“I like talking about soccer, but there is a difference between serious talk and mere gossip,” he says.
It’s on Thursday afternoons that the talk becomes serious as Károlyi takes time off his company responsibilities and assumes the committee chair for the regular meetings.
That’s when, as he says, “I switch off my mobile phone and cut myself off from regular business. I then fully focus on soccer matters.”
He often takes his work home and toils even on Saturdays and Sundays.
“My family’s gotten used to that already,” he says with a bitter smile.
In fact, his adult son Alexander is following in Dad’s footsteps and works as a civil judge in Prague while also serving as chairman of soccer’s Prague disciplinary committee.
Károlyi himself has been in this role so long he finds it difficult to shake off some professional habits even when at home.
“When I’m to decide something with my wife, I always tend to measure things and I try to find a balanced solution,” he says. “Also, having gone through so many hearings with players and heard many unexpected explanations and statements, I’ve developed pretty good arguing skills — and can find fast counter arguments!”

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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