Liberec sold players for 415 million, says owner Ondřej Kaňa

The owner of football club Slovan Liberec, Ondřej Kaňa, argues that the Czech league isn't experiencing “hyperinflation” in transfer prices, as some officials claim, but the emergence of a genuine market where even small clubs can turn a profit. This summer, Liberec sold four players for a combined total of around 415 million crowns — a sum that would have been unthinkable for a club of this size just a few years ago.

Kaňa bought Slovan Liberec in 2024 and has since been detailing the club's finances on his own Substack blog. According to him, in the season the club came under his control, its operating budget stood at around 120 million crowns a year, excluding the academy and transfers. Last season that figure grew to roughly 185 million, and this season it will likely exceed 200 million crowns. The growth is partly down to bonuses tied to the team's on-field results.

At the same time, the club's operating income — league (LFA) payments, UEFA solidarity payments, sponsorship contracts, ticket and season-pass sales, and merchandising — covers only around 90 million crowns in an average season, and at most around 110 million in a successful one that includes European competition. That means without selling players, the club can't cover even half of its current expenses.

That's precisely why transfer sales aren't a one-off stroke of luck for Liberec but part of a sustainable business model. Kaňa stresses that if even half of the Czech league adopted a similar approach, many clubs could operate in an economically viable environment, without chronic dependence on their owners' money.

The inflow of capital into Czech football has surged in recent years: the country's wealthiest people have been buying clubs, including Michal Strnad, Daniel Křetínský and Pavel Tykač. Revenue from broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals is rising, and player prices are climbing along with it. While some in the league talk of transfer-market “hyperinflation,” Kaňa insists that Czechia has simply developed a real market for the first time — one where it's not only top clubs like Sparta, Slavia and Viktoria Plzeň that come out ahead, but mid-table sides too.