Transfer regulations: the price of children in junior hockey
The Czech Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) is dealing with the problem of severance pay of young hockey players for the third year running. When a player decides to transfer to another club he must be paid a fixed sum tabulated by the CIHA.
This measure was approved in mid-June this year. The problem may occur at a time when the parents decide, whether for professional or purely personal reasons, to move to the opposite end of the Republic, or simply want to place a talented child in a higher quality organization.
In the transfer order, CIHA sets so-called „tabular severance pay“, which varies according to the age of the young hockey players and competition. This applies to all athletes who were born in 1997 – 2006. For the ten-year-old boy or girl, a fifth-grade pupil, the association sets the amount at 20,000 crowns, which three years later climbs to 70,000 crowns. In top junior competitions, the charge escalates to 100 to 300 thousand crowns. For the junior player who has not yet reached his nineteenth year of age, tables set compensation at half a million crowns.
The situation around the Transfer regulations was mostly discussed in the 2014/2015 season when the parents of young hockey players began to rebel against the Association. Often, parents themselves had to pay the transfer charge.
In Jindrichuv Hradec, to protest against CIHA statutes and the general functioning of the organization KLH Vajgar, local parents founded their own hockey club because of the Vajgar manager Frantisek Dvorak, who is currently serving as a member of the Executive Committee of the hockey association. Parents argue that many clubs do not pay a penny for hockey equipment. In addition, their management is often not transparent.
However, the chairman of CIHA, Tomáš Král, agrees with the transfer regulations, despite the fact that in other developed countries similar tables do not exist, with the exception of Slovakia. Král says that this measure protects parents.
Cancellation would supposedly mean multiple increases in their financial contributions, and thus reduce the affordability of hockey. A year ago, the Association conducted a survey in which the vast majority of Czech clubs was included. 49 of the 52 clubs voted to keep the severance payments. The three remaining clubs objected to the fact that the current model would be only adjusted.
Text vznikl v rámci kurzu Angličtina pro žurnalisty Kabinetu jazykové přípravy.
