REPORT ON B4 ACTIVITIES FOR 2024

B4, the leading organiser of sports camps in Slovenia, was again active in all areas of its activities in 2024. Alongside the strategic development of the four pillars of the company’s business, which ensures continuous growth in the quality and scope of its offer, the past year was also marked by a number of positive developments that make 2024 a varied and labour-intensive, yet successful business year.

One of the most visible milestones was the launch of the redesigned website, which is now the hub and source of all relevant information related to B4. Content such as a presentation of our story and our staff, presentations of our services, football infrastructure, partners, and, of course, destinations now take every visitor through a brief introduction to what we are all about. Alongside the many excellent clubs we have hosted over the past year for winter and summer training and events, which will be described in more detail later in this report, the following projects are worth highlighting:

• The ninth edition of the Umag Trophy, which once again set records, broke milestones and laid the perfect foundations for the jubilee edition in 2025,
• The first organised training camp of professional teams in Austria – a geographical expansion to new destinations, which we continued with the premiere training camp in Turkey in early 2025,
• Co-organisation of FNC 15, a mixed martial arts spectacle that thrilled a packed arena and shocked the region,
• The opening of the Preddvor Sports Park, where we were involved in all phases and in a variety of roles,
• Responsible for the preparation of the Slovenian men’s national handball team, later semi-finalists at the Olympic Games in Paris,
• Help organise the Basketball EuroCup game in Stožice and many other projects …

More details on what’s happening on the pitches, in the arenas, hotels, airports, buses, warehouses and offices will follow in the following chapters.

SPORTS CAMPS

The year started, as usual for our agency, with the arrival of the first teams to Istria for their winter training camp – in 2024, Fehervar opened their season on 5 January.

During the spring and autumn part of the season, we also hosted Split Hajduk, Sturm Graz, FK Sarajevo and HNK Rijeka in Slovenia’s Čatež ob Sava and Croatia’s Umag, Novigrad and Rovinj, NK Osijek, Slask Wroclaw from Poland, Ruh Liviv, DSV Leoben, FK Javor, Makedonija GP, Radnički from Novi Belgrade, FK Bdin Vidin, Tekstil Odžaci, Bravo, Domžale, Radomlje, Aluminij and Rogaška.

After the aforementioned premiere preparations in neighbouring Austria, where Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb, Rijeka and Osijek trained, the action during the summer preparatory season has largely moved to Slovenian soil. In Kranjska Gora, Luton Town and Charlton Athletic from England, Rizespor and Konyaspor from Turkey, Fehervar and MTK Budapest from Hungary, and NK Celje and NK Bravo from Slovenia have been honing their form ahead of the new competition season.

The excellent teams also did their preparations in Bled and Čatež. Among them were Turkish top-flight side Göztepe, Belgrade giants Partizan, Slovakia’s Spartak Trnava, old acquaintances Budafoki from Hungary, Čukarički from Serbia, and Ukraine’s Rh Lviv, ambitious Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih from Ukraine and FC Sabah from Azerbaijan, as well as FK Hebar from Bulgaria.

This summer, the Slovenian men’s handball team was preparing with our agency in Kranjska Gora before their successful performance at the Olympic Games, where they reached the semi-finals. One of the favourites to win the national title, RD Slovan, was also training for the new season in the Vitranc hall.

On the national team scene, we hosted the Slovenian, Austrian and Qatari U19 national teams, while the country from the Arabian Peninsula also sent its U17 national team to the same destination for preparations. After the summer, the football teams were replaced by the Slovenian and French U21 futsal teams, and the American U15 and U17 teams.

MATCHES

B4 is the leading organiser of sports preparation in Slovenia. Well-organised preparatory matches with suitable competitors are one of the key criteria of preparation satisfaction for professional sports clubs and, as a consequence, B4 is also the organiser of the highest number of football preparatory matches during the preparation period.

Between 9 January and 16 February, B4 organised 70 football matches, 21 of them in Slovenia. Čatež dominated the venues, but matches were also played in Koper, Kidričevo, Rogaška and Ajdovščina.

Between 13 June and 8 August, B4 organised 65 football matches and was involved in organising 84 meetings in total. Of these, 61 were played in more than 15 locations across Slovenia. Add to this the 12 matches of the Slovenia Nations Cup for men’s national teams under 19 and the 7 matches of the Slovenia Nations Cup for women’s national teams, which took place between 5 September and 29 October, and you have a figure of 80 football matches played on Slovenian soil this summer and autumn thanks to B4.

74 live streams of the matches were streamed on the Facebook page. These have received a total of 335,000 views.

EVENTS AND ACCOMMODATION

We also continued our tradition of organising events. In 2024, the ninth edition of the Umag Trophy for young footballers, the sixth edition of the Slovenia Nations Cup for men’s national teams under 19, the third edition of the women’s version of the Slovenia Nations Cup and the Istria Nations Cup futsal tournament were held. Among the projects in the field of events, it is also worth mentioning the organisation of congress events (e.g. the Fizian seminar), which are a relative novelty in our agency’s offer.

The total of all nights generated by B4 in Slovenia for 2024 is 21,000, while we have generated around 45,000 nights abroad.