The Budapest Times
Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto – Photo: Facebook

Government pledges further help to sports projects in Transylvania

Written by BT/MTI
The Hungarian government will continue to support sports infrastructure projects in Transylvania, including Szekler Land, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday after talks with Karoly Eduard Novak, Romania's minister of sports.

“Sports is a tool to preserve and consolidate national identity and pride,” Szijjarto told a joint press conference in Budapest.

So far the government has provided 30 billion forints (EUR 83m) of support for sports projects in the region inhabited by many ethnic Hungarians, including the construction of a soccer stadium for Sepsi OSK in Sfantu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyorgy) and an ice hockey rink in Sangeorgiu de Mures (Marosszentgyorgy), he noted.

Similar large-scale plans are in place this year to support the construction of Partium Soccer Academy in Szatmarnemeti (Satu Mare) and a boarding school for the Szekler Land’s Ice Hockey Academy in Carta (Csikkarcfalva), Szijjarto said.

Stressing the need for reforms in Romanian sports, Novak said he hoped that Hungary would promote the process by sharing its best practices.

Leave a Reply