Groundhopping24

 Zero. Nada. Zilch. No, I'm not talking about my current bank balance, but the number of teams promoted to the Czech First League via the play-off system introduced in 2018. Not a single one of the eight FNL teams to have made the play-offs - neither Vysocina Jihlava, Zbrojovka Brno, Opava, Vlasim, Pribram, Vyskov (three times), Taborsko, nor Chrudim - have ever won promotion via the play-off system. Chrudim and Vyskov came pretty close last season, sure. A contentious VAR call stopped Chrudim from levelling the tie against their groundsharing neighbours, Pardubice, while Dukla Praha needed penalties to keep Vyskov down. When considering the respective plight of both Chrudim (allegedly involved in the match-fixing scandal and currently unable to get a licence for the second tier) and Vyskov (replaced by Pribram, now playing in the sixth tier) a year later, it tells you a lot about what a mess Czech football is in right now. Add to all of this the fact that nobody has any real idea ...

 On 19th April 2025, Banik Ostrava beat Bohemians 1-0 thanks to Lukáš Hůlka's own goal in front of a 14,385 strong crowd, this being the last game before the league was split into the three groups. I choose that game in particular, as it's one I had planned on attending, though various medical issues had other ideas.  Suffice to say, Banik were riding a high they hadn't ridden for a long time before, during, or after that game, sitting pretty comfortably in 3rd with no danger of falling out of a European place. They would end the season there and finish in their highest ever league position since 2010. Moreover after this Bohemians game was a semi-final at home to Sigma Olomouc, and a chance to make even more history in reaching a first cup final since 2019, when Banik finished runners up to Slavia Praha (0-2). The dream died in a fesity 3-2 defeat, as Banik spurned the opportunity to give themselves a chance of picking up a first piece of silverware in twenty years. The cr...

When it comes to groundhopping and keeping count of all the grounds you've watched a game at, there inevitably come milestones. This weekend's game of choice marks ground number 300 for me, which seems fairly insane to say the least. That said, when it's a weekly hobby for the best part of two decades in various home cities over the years, it's not as difficult as it might seem. But when reaching those milestones, you spend so long pondering - should I make it a special one? Should I finally try and tick off Cork City, club of my grandad's hometown? Would I have enough time and money to head to Berlin and tick off Hertha? And while I was quite annoyed that I couldn't make Lokomotiv Plovdiv the 300th ground, it led me to think - why does it matter?  In many ways, it doesn't. After all, the hobby of groundhopping for me was essentially an extension of following Stevenage home and away, and moving from Stevenage and essentially being unable to do so on a weekly...

 With the arrival of the Easter break came another opportunity to travel to a new country, and the last twelve months have been pretty strong with regard to ticking off new countries. Though the summer didn't bring any new countries, I did still have the joy of returning to Cork, experiencing Koper in Slovenia, and finally getting to the Eastern part of Slovakia with a long weekend in Košice. I did manage to get to Montenegro in October, though the less said about that, the better. Belgium in February was thankfully a lot more enjoyable, especially getting to experience the phenomenal atmosphere at Standard Liege. Now, it's the turn of Plovdiv in Bulgaria - a city I'd always wanted to visit having heard it was one of the longest inhabited cities in Europe, as well as a new country I was keen to explore. Having found a cheap flight from Bratislava to Plovdiv (and an annoyingly pricy one to get us back from Sofia to Vienna), the plan was to fly out on the Thursday and come ba...

 It would be easy to look at Slovak football at the surface level and think that Slovan Bratislava are the only club from the country's capital city, given that they are the only top-flight side from the capital at present. Moreover, the club are perennial title-winners. Even when not having a good season, they somehow manage to pull it out of the bag every time without fail. Those who don't follow current Slovak football, however, may not know about some of the other clubs based in Bratislava that currently occupy the second tier - Petržalka (formerly Artmedia Bratislava), and Inter Bratislava. There are of course many more that play in the lower reaches of the Slovak pyramid, but how did Bratislava go from a three top flight clubs in 1996-97 to just the one today? Well as well as the fall of Petržalka (which warrants a blog of its own - I even wrote one a few years back), there is also the story of Inter Bratislava, who I'm visiting for a first Slovak trip of the calenda...

  Sorry, I can't resist a Peep Show reference. Until around 5pm on Friday, I only had plans to attend one game this weekend, and that game wasn't even scheduled for the weekend. Monday evening will see Zbrojovka Brno face off against undesirable cohabitees (as opposed to noisy neighbours) Artis Brno, as they look to cement their status as the dominant force in Brno, and go one step closer to confirming a near certain league title. In any case, my plans were to take part in another darts tournament, but instead, I felt a trip to somewhere new and random would be just the ticket instead, especially given the upturn in weather. I looked through the league fixtures in Futbology and settled on another fourth tier game, this time between Humpolec and Kuřim. And of course, Humpolec being home to the best beer in the Czech Republic played a fairly sizable role in my decision. I am of course talking about the excellent Bernard beer, which is genuinely unbeatable on tap. I had the pleas...