The awkward questions behind Hungary's football revival

Orban's government introduced the Tao programme - a scheme that enabled corporations to write off donations to clubs in certain sports as a tax deduction.

The effects since its introduction in 2011 have been marked.

"A complete infrastructural overhaul was carried out in the last decade," said Henrik Hegedus, who is head of data at Hungary's most popular football club Ferencvaros, having previously worked at the Hungarian Football Association for seven years.

"More than 20 stadiums have been built, well over 1,000 pitches built or renovated. Hungary play with sold-out stadiums at home, 60,000 attend even friendly games."

But questions have been asked about whether the benefits - with an estimated 923bn Hungarian forints, external (£2bn), external of potential government income directed to sports clubs instead - have been shared equally.

The Puskas Academy, founded by Orban in his hometown, has benefited most, with one November 2021 estimate that it had received 36.3bn Hungarian forints (£78m) over the previous decade.

Mezokovesd Zsory was the second-best funded club of that year, receiving 552m Hungarian forints (£1.2m).

A small club in a town of 17,000 people, Mezokovesd have Andras Tallai, the former tax office chief and current secretary of state for parliamentary affairs and taxation, as their president.

The vast majority of Hungarian top-flight clubs are similarly owned or run by Orban's allies or officials from his party.

Orban's government has attempted to keep secret the exact figures and the identity of those making use of Tao's sporting tax break.

But the prime minister has been forthright in his defence of the scheme.

"It is a success story," he told Nemzeti Sport in December 2020., external

"Not only has it brought more resources to sports and made it easier for associations to operate, but, more importantly, a relationship has been established between business organisations, companies and sports organisations.

"Until the introduction of the Tao, the world of entrepreneurs and sports did not maintain any relationship with each other.

"I don't think it's a normal attitude to regret spending money on sports fields or for children to play sports."