October 30, 2021 - The Hajduk strategy until 2027 was presented to fans. President Lukša Jakobušić and Management Board member Ivan Matana spoke at the ceremony, and the strategy developed by Matana was presented by Gordan Kožulj, who today works for Deloitte, which also participated in the strategy development.
Index.hr reports that in the beginning, Kožulj stated Hajduk's clear goals until 2027. In that period, Hajduk wants to win the championship twice, be second in other seasons and win at least one Cup. In addition, they intend to play the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers twice, the Champions League group once, the Europa League group once, and the Conference League group three times. In this competition, one entry into round of 32 and once into the round of 16 is expected. The average age of the A team of the club must be between 24 and 26 years, and every year the Hajduk junior team wants to promote two young players to the first team.
"Hajduk is currently the 140th club in Europe. For all Croatian clubs, including Hajduk, the key is to play in European competitions. Revenues from UEFA are significant for clubs, the value of players is rising, and there is a fight for the national coefficient. Hajduk has played only the preliminaries of the European League during the past five seasons. This Management is not satisfied with that. The Hajduk management believes that Hajduk can be between 80 and 100 on the UEFA rankings. Last year, Milan was 80, and Maribor was 100 with five million euros.
This is an example of clubs with a large budget falling to a lower level and clubs with a small budget, such as Maribor, getting a good result. We took the example of Rapid, Partizan, Legija and AZ Alkmaar. Hajduk and the Management must think about how to reach a budget of at least 20 million euros to achieve the desired goal," Kožulj said.
He also said that the Academy must help to improve results.
"We need to have professional staff who can hone their talent. When we came in 2016, we saw that Hajduk has 40 outside scouts. Only three of them made a report at the end of the year. Today the club has clear contours of an advanced organization," Kožulj said.
The development of the Academy includes the construction of a football camp with fields and ancillary facilities, the development of Hajduk Digital, developing the sales network and strengthening cooperation with sponsors and systematizing operations, establishing a new performance and reward management system, and developing three-year business plans.
In October 2015, Hajduk's then-president Marin Brbić published a three-year work plan and program from 2016 to 2019. Thus, already in the 2015/2016 season, the goal was to win one of the national trophies, and in the 2016/2017 season to be "the most serious candidate to win one of the national trophies and enter the group of UEFA competitions".
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