Jagiellonia Białystok fans are currently experiencing the most beautiful moments in the club's history related to the Polish championship and successfully playing in European cups. However, this happens only two or three years after they had to worry about the future of the club. Sporty Jagiellonia At that time, it was desperately fighting to survive, and financially it was in such a situation that the new president, Wojciech Pertkiewicz, who came to the club, was just shaking his head.
– It wasn't colorful. Before joining the club, I did an audit using the available documents. The then president, Agnieszka Syczewska, introduced me to several other elements, remotely, before I signed the contract. But it is known that balance sheet matters or profit and loss accounts are documents for a certain period, and it is enough to have unstable financial liquidity even in a short period of time and problems will appear very quickly. This was also the case with us – says Pertkiewicz in a large interview with Sport.pl, which will be published in the coming days.
– I don't know if everyone remembers, but very shortly after my arrival in Białystok in “Przegląd Sportowy” there was information that Jagiellonia did not pay salaries. It was not the full truth, because we paid some of the salaries and it was the only moment, the only month when there was no money for salaries. This shows how difficult a situation we were in, but later There was not a month in which the players did not receive their full salary, and then we have reached a point where the timely payment of salaries or bonuses is not a topic of discussion at all – notes the president of Jaga.
– We sat down with the supervisory board members many times and planned our moves for the coming months. This required ingenuity, renegotiation of contracts, etc. I would like to remind you that we had, among others: 94 players signed contracts, many of them senior players. It was enough to multiply all this by twelve months and it amounted to millions of zlotys per season – he explains.
Jagiellonia was in such a bad situation that it sold the club's headquarters. “It wasn't about PLN 500”
At the worst moment, Jagiellonia Białystok had such a difficult financial situation that at the beginning of 2023 it was even forced to sell the club's headquarters at its historic address, Jurowiecka 21.
The Białystok club, which for years was located in one of the premises of the skyscraper at 28 Legionowa Street, returned to Jurowiecka in 2018 to a modern office in one of the apartment buildings built by the club's shareholders. And she remains there to this day, even though she did not own it for several months.
– Two years ago We were in such an extremely bad financial situation that one of the ways to save ourselves was to sell the club premises at ul. Jurowiecka. However, we did not hand it over to unknown hands, but it was taken by a very responsible person who wanted to help Jagiellonia, which was at a crossroads – admits Wojciech Pertkiewicz.
The person who obtained the headquarters was Robert Skrzypkowski from R/S Budownictwo, who participated in the construction of Jagiellońskie Apartments located at Jurowiecka Street. However, Jagiellonia was very well secured and was not in danger of losing its seat to someone else.
– However, in the documents we had the right of pre-emption and a ban on selling this headquarters to anyone else, although no one had even thought of anything in this respect. It was a form of help, and in this way we ensured our functioning for the coming months – says Pertkiewicz.
Currently, however, the seat is back in the hands of Jagiellonia, also thanks to winning the historic title of Polish champion a few months ago. – We paid it off in tranches for two years, and after winning the Polish championship and receiving a bonus for this success, we bought everything back as agreed and we are “home” again. At that moment, however, it was a key issue, so I would like to thank Robert Skrzypkowski for his support in such a difficult moment. It was a great move on his part, because it wasn't about PLN 500 – we hear.
How much money did Jagiellonia receive as part of the sale of its headquarters? The club's authorities keep this fact a secret, but we are talking about the amount that helped Jaga survive for another half a year, so we can safely assume a seven-digit number.
Among fans There were fears that the relegation of Jagiellonia, then fighting for relegation, could result in starting from the third league. – There was no such threat, but if it did happen, it would certainly be a revolutionary situation in the context of the club's organization, although I think we would be able to control it. Jagiellonia is “too big to fall”. It is the pearl of Podlasie and I think that with the full commitment of the owners, shareholders, the city, business and fans, it would be able to cope with such a sports crisis. Reorganization and slimming down in many areas of the club's activities would be inevitable, but there would be a general uprising because Jagiellonia was honestly managed and the return to the elite would be quick – concludes Wojciech Pertkiewicz.
Before the 17th round of the PKO Ekstraklasa, Jagiellonia Białystok was in second place with 33 points. Moreover, Adrian Siemieniec's team is third in the European Conference League table and advanced to the 1/8 finals of the Polish Cup, where it will face second-division Olimpia Grudziądz. However, her next match will be on Sunday, December 1 in Szczecin, where she will face Pogoń.