STRABAG NOW MAIN SPONSOR

The president of NK Osijek, Ivan Mestrovic, rallied the press at Gradski Vrt before the game against Cibalija in order to talk about certain news concerning the club. The main news is, of course, Strabag becoming the main sponsor, whose name certainly is known.

- I usually don’t talk about things until they’re set in stone, but in this case, I can happily say that we are finishing our negotiations with our future general sponsor, which is the big Austrian construction services company, Strabag. I believe that, in the coming 10 days, we will have signed a multimillion contract with them. Our club is one of the few ones on the continet that is being financed with 95% foreign assets, save Premier League clubs in England and some other clubs like PSG. That in itself is a huge business milestone. Our budget is 5,5 mil. Euro as of now, which is what we are projecting to be, without the public having to know that it isn’t only for our first-leaguer. A chunk of it goes to the Football School that we want to elevate to a higher and better standard. Additionally, we have some small matters to attend to regarding our pre-bankruptcy agreement that need to be taken care of. We have, however, proven that the club will be more stable than ever.

Citizens’ sense of being part of the club rises

A new executive board of NK Osijek was elected this Saturday in which many prominent people can be seen, most of them being businessmen. Mestrovic stated that a further goal was familiarizing the public with the sports entity, NK Osijek. He states: “The “Pokrenimo Grad” project progresses as planned and I am happy that many have heeded the call, especially businessmen ready to invest in something that is surely going to produce profit, among them the intendant of HNK, the director of KBC, and people who in general have systems with many employees under them. The main objective for them is to spread the good word about NK Osijek. The executive board has 15 members as of now, 20 being the goal figure and all of them actively participating. These people will in the end add to the club’s reputation. The end goal is to, again, familiarize NK Osijek to the general public at every level. We are negotiating with big firms and we are adding their employees to our club membership program, increasing the perception of our city as being connected on that level.

Project: Rebuild Gradski Vrt

Since the coming of new owners and a new board, the question regarding the stadium is a hot topic. Much is being done in order to prepare for that project, with some facts being disclosed now. “The question is imposed on where we will play if we demolish the existing city. Right now, we are in the phase of building a new one, since the current stadium doesn’t and won’t survive the necessary operations, so to speak. The existing object is still poorly accessible, the western tribune wouldn’t support our desired idea of a good awning, it wouldn’t even survive the removal of the other tribunes nor would it survive the moving of the playfield closer to the western tribune. That is why we are currently working on a big plan which will be discussed with landowners of Gradski Vrt and we will seek to buy all of them out in cooperation with the city in order to arrive at an acceptable solution: To build the new stadium on the existing location, where the old one has been standing from the seventies as the regional sports node.

It is important for citizens to be proud of their club

Even though, half a year ago, it was said that this season was supposed to be the stabilization year with a determined effort to make it to the upper-echelon of the CNL, the team is in the top 4 right now. The question remains: is mr. Mestrovic happy with the result? He replies: “My interest is that the citizens are proud of their club. If it is solely up to the improvement of the results or the other efforts we do is up to the public to judge. Let the people be the judges. We work in such a way as to strive to be number one! Let the pieces fall where they are supposed to and I believe that we will become a competent group in order to attack the very top of Croatian football in the near future, which is actually happening right now. The owners of NK Osijek don’t live off of football and that is our advantage. The only pressure I have is to satisfy the public and the citizens, that is my duty and nothing more. Be it by placing good in Europe remains to be seen. Regardless of that, I think that we can already be happy and proud to have become a city in which we already have a serious, competitive football club.