Big unique step forward in Slovakia

27 Nov 2013 | Lukas Gonda

Hockey club Zilina published player salaries.

What is public in NHL or you can see in KHL is not used in small country like Slovakia. As long as Slovak Republic is an independent country something like sports players salary in every field has been taboo. Till now. Last week the hockey club MsHK Zilina (nick name Wolves) published the hockey player’s salaries. “As 100 percent of the hockey club is owned by the city of Zilina the law obligates us to publish salaries. But we wanted to also. Our priority is transparency and financial health status.“ Said Martin Lesko, member of the board of directors. Now, as player salaries are no more secret, you can see them here:

Richard Johanes 1.000 €
Jaroslav Kalla 2.000 €
Milan Drevenák 1.300 €
Adrian Lipovsky 600 €
Anton Čavrk 700 €
Tibor Varga 1.300 €
Matej Valašek 1.200 €
Jakub Linet 900 €
Martin Leško 950 €
Radim Ostrčil 1.400 €
Igor Rúfus 1.800 €
David Bajaník 600 €
Slavomír Hriňa 1.100 €
Patrik Jarab 500 €
Filip Macejka 1.000 €
Patrik Zicho 350 €
Rastislav Slota 350 €
Tomáš Čičala 300 €
David Buc 1.000 €
Marcel Šterbák 1.600 €
Peter Klouda 1.700 €
Roman Tomas 1.500 €
Jan Dlouhý 2.650 €

This is just the basic salary. Every player can get other bonuses like 90 € for winning a game in regular time, 60 € for winning game in overtime or after penalty shoots, 30 € for gaining one point for the club. (loss in overtime or after penalty shoots). According to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic the average gross pay in Slovakia is approximately 800 €. Zilina is now the last team in the Slovak Tipsport Extraliga standings. After publishing player salaries they won the last 2 games. No other hockey club in Slovakia has intention to follow Zilina. So lets say it was lonely step forward for Slovak hockey.