The Slovak government will not buy the newly-built National Football Stadium in Bratislava from the company that built it, NFS a.s., claiming that its forward purchase contract for the facility is invalid and charging that the project was marred by corruption. It’s a huge change of fortune for the builder, which had convinced the previous Slovak government to buy the stadium as promised, even though the final price tag rose from the agreed €75.2 million to €98.4 million. NFS began building the stadium in 2016 and received a promise from the state that it would complete the construction and buy out the non-commercial portions of it, while providing €27.2 million in subsidies. By 2018, there was already controversy over reports of rising costs, but this didn’t prevent the Pellegrini government from agreeing to pay more. The new government of Igor Matovic carried out a forensic audit of the entire project which concluded that the contract was invalid, that state officials had been involved in the manipulation of public tenders and that the transaction could not be completed. An investigation has been launched that’s expected to result in criminal charges.
