Midfield general How the love of football helped writer get rare one-on-one with notorious dictator
NEIL MAGGS
A Bristol football writer – and regular at the Memorial Stadium – used sporting tactics to expose the underbelly of one of Europe’s most controversial figures. tells the story of how David Goldblatt met Hungarian president, Viktor Orban
ABRISTOL writer scooped an incredibly rare interview with a notorious dictator – using his love of fotoball as bait.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had not given an interview to the outside press for 12 years. He has overseen unprecedented censorship of the press in his home country, but he was wooed by a signed copy of Mr Goldblatt’s award-winning book The Ball is Round.
Mr Goldblatt, alongside British, Hungary- based journalist Daniel Nolan, both pictured inset wrote about his experience for The Guardian. The article has since attracted so much attention it won Best Sport Story at the Foreign Press Association awards.
Mr Goldblatt is considered one of the best sport writers in the UK. His book The Ball is Round is a classic on football and The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain received the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize in 2015.
Raised in London, Mr Goldblatt moved to Bristol more than 10 years ago and lives in Horfield, and regularly watches Bristol Rovers at the Memorial stadium.
Goldblatt’s articles for The Guardian look at issues around politics and sport and so when he headed to Hungary in 2017 it was with the intention to write about Hungarian football - he had no idea he would encounter Mr Orban
Mr Orban has heavily criticised the migration policy in Europe, and is on record as saying: “We must make it clear that our problem is not in Mecca, but in Brussels.” Orban’s critics say he has re-written the Hungarian consti- tution, undermined the judiciary and parliament, and destroyed any opposition press. But it is perhaps his immigration policy, his attacks on Islam, and the introduction of programmes implementing emphasis on ethnic Hungarians which have caused most outrage. He once said: “The best migrant is the migrant that does not come.”
He is a personal friend of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and US President Donald Trump. Mr Orban was first Prime Minister from 1998 to 2002 and remained in opposition until returning to power in 2010. Mr Goldblatt said: “For me, he is problematic. A very scary character. He uses fear to manipulate a nation.”
Orban has not conducted an unofficial interview which was not heavily censored for more a decade. So for a writer from Bristol to get unprecedented access to him is remarkable.
But Orban’s weakness is football. He is said to sometimes watch six games of football a day.
He has attended every Champions League final for the past 25 years and every World Cup final since 1998. So with his book, Mr Goldblatt had his attention.
Mr Goldblatt said: “I exposed a soft underbelly. He just wanted to show off to me.”
The national stadium – the Pancho Arena, named after the nickname of Hungary’s most famous player Ferenc Puskas – that Mr Orban commissioned is his pride and joy. His house sits next door and he can see the pitch from his kitchen wiindow.
Mr Goldblatt said: “I played my wild card. I took in a personally signed copy of The Ball is Round and passed it to his one of his advisors, asking if Mr Orban could spare two minutes of his time. I didn’t expect anything. He hasn’t seen an unfriendly journalist for 12 years.” he added.
But, to his shock, Mr Goldblatt was told ‘Mr Orban will see you’.
“We were taken to a room and as I entered he was sat thumbing through the book, insisting loudly it should be translated into Hungarian. Daniel quickly turned on his iPhone and started recording.”
To their astonishment, the pair spent two hours with Orban as he spoke at length while escorting them around the stadium.
Having gained unprecedented access, Goldblatt knew he could not ask too many difficult questions and so just let Orban talk.
He said: “It’s a performance. No point playing hard ball, telling him you are a bad man. I can’t outwit or challenge him. But he let slip a lot of stuff. I didn’t need to say anything. There are many ways to skin a cat.”
The lavish amount of public money Mr Orban has spent on football is well documented, and he showed Mr Goldblatt his ‘Hungarian ethnic football academy’. The academy is only for Hungarian-born nationals and Mr Orban also spoke of the recruitment of Hungarians in neighbouring Serbia, Romania and Ukraine – places that were once part of ‘Greater Hungary’ before the 1920s. While the encounter with Mr Goldblatt exposed his far-right views, it also revealed a child-like frivolity. Here is a man who rules a country by fear, but treats public funds like a teenager to subsidise his hobby.
On winning the Foreign Press Association Awards in London alongside Daniel Nolan, Mr Goldblatt said: “Exposing his soft underbelly and ego, shows how vain and weak these strongmen really are.”