Introduction into the Productivity System

In order to achieve this goal, HFF first provided financial support to professional teams if they offered more game time opportunities to young domestic players. As a result, one could witness a significant rise in the number of minutes played by young footballers in the top leagues. While keeping the original objectives, we will further develop the system by providing support to a wider group engaged in the training and development of junior players. The name of the new structure is: Productivity System.

A football player's career can be divided into two parts: the training and development period lasts until the age of 19, which is then followed by the productive period, during which he earns points for his junior club(s) whenever he plays in official matches (in domestic of foreign championships), in matches of the adult or junior national teams, as well as in international cup matches.

In the new system HFF will support clubs with youth programmes so that they would train young players who will then be able to become core players in adult football clubs and also in the national junior and adult teams.

The basis for the calculation of productivity is the time spent on the pitch, which is weighted by the scoring system according to the level of the match and the player's age. If a domestic player stays on the pitch throughout an entire match in NB I (the highest level national championship), he receives a point for each minute played, i.e. a total of 90 points for the entire game time. The 90 points are divided between/among the player's junior clubs proportionate to the time they trained him. The deployment of home-grown players is rewarded with extra points. The points earned on the basis of minutes spent on the pitch are weighted with multipliers. The highest multiplier is 3, which is used for time spent on the pitch in any of the TOP 5 foreign championships, or in games as a member of the national team 'A'. This yields the final scores.

When calculating the scores, all points earned in the last three consecutive seasons are added up. The points produced are divided between/among the player's junior clubs. Nearly 400 sports organisations receive productivity points, i.e. this many clubs nurtured at least one player who played in professional matches in the past three years.

Finally, based on the scores we rank players according to strength, and the total of the players' points determine the ranking of the clubs. The clubs will be eligible for a support of HUF 4,000 for each point collected.

Concurrently with this, a similarly structured Productivity System will be introduced in women's football, based on a database of female players.

The introduction of the Productivity System was preceded by a year's preparatory work, and the studying of international models. Tests were conducted in the second half of the 2017–2018 season, and from the new season beginning on 21 July, clubs can receive support based on these points. It is important to emphasise that support can be awarded not only to the 32 professional clubs. After each season nearly 400 clubs can receive funding from the HUF 4 billion budget.

The Hungarian Football Federation will publish all productivity data: the data pertaining to the players and clubs will soon be accessible in the Database of HFF. The detailed summary tables of the Productivity System will be accessible here after an e-mail registration.