CZEAUTSVKPOL: #1: Sigma Olomouc

 

Back in March of this year, I decided to head out to Brno in the Czech Republic, due in part to how cheap the flight was, and how much I’d get to see in the vicinity of the city. At the time, I had no idea that I would be getting ready to move there months later, but life moves in strange ways.

During the trip, I only really saw a little bit of my future home city, having arrived in the evening and used it as a base for a day trip to Vienna. I left Brno on the third day of the trip for Olomouc, as Sigma were one of many teams I’d grown fond of via Football Manager. They were at home to Slovan Liberec. Needless to say, I'll have future blogs on some of the Brno based teams very soon.

 

Getting to Olomouc

I arrived into Olomouc via the hour-long coach from Brno with only a vague idea as to what to expect. After some pleasant views of the Moravian countryside, I was blown away when I got to Olomouc. It's roughly a 20-30 minute walk to the centre from the bus and railway stations, with plenty of beautiful murals of kings and renowned figures dominating the route.

It was unseasonably warm, which gave the place a bit of a Mediterranean feel. The Horni Namesti is impossibly gorgeous and unmistakably slavic though, with all kinds of bizarre and wonderful statues and fountains dotted throughout the square. The clock tower is the icing on a magnificent and largely untasted cake, at least compared to some of the other Czech towns and cities.

I’ve seen Olomouc described as a cheaper and smaller version of Prague sans the tourists, which isn’t far wrong. I would recommend a beer and a pizza at Pizza Karamba, followed by a nice whisky or another beer at The Black Sheep – both places had English speakers if you’re worried about the language barrier.

 

What’s the ground like?

Frankly it’s the best football ground I’ve been to, and I don’t say this lightly having visited 200 of them. The Andrův Stadion is fairly close to the city centre, and once you’re nearby you can’t really miss it. It defies description, which is good news as far as not exceeding my self-imposed word count goes.

The ground has also hosted numerous Czech National Team games, and it’s easy to see why. The shirt from the club shop also takes pride of place as a favourite in my growing collection.

The match itself wasn’t a thriller by any stretch of the imagination, with both sides set for a mid-table finish. There was an outside shot of Europe for both sides and Sigma’s hopes were done no harm by a surprisingly comfortable 1-0 win courtesy of Jan Navrátil. The only travesty was the fact the ground wasn’t even close to being full – such a magnificent stadium deserves a decent sized crowd.

Who are ya?

Founded in 1919 as FK Hejčín Olomouc, Sigma have a fairly illustrious history. They played in the top division for the first time in 1982-83 back when it was the Czechoslovak league, regrettably finishing bottom with a paltry 16 points – a mere half a point per game…

 

They were back in 1984-85, and they had seemed to learn their lessons, finishing in 6^th. They would stay in the Czechoslovak First League until its dissolution in 1993, managing to either be in the hunt for Europe or narrowly avoid relegation with seemingly little middle ground.

 

They qualified for Europe twice just before the Czechoslovakian split, even reaching the UEFA Cup Quarter Finals in 1991-92. They saw off Bangor (of Northern Ireland), Torpedo Moscow, and even Hamburg before agonizingly falling to Real Madrid in Quarters. A year on they demolished Fenerbahce 7-1 in the second leg of their Round 2 tie before Juventus saw them off in the following round.

 

Since then, the club kept things relatively stable, occasionally qualifying for Europe without really threating the status quo. Aberdeen and Everton fans may even remember them from the 2009-10 season. Hanaci saw off Aberdeen  8-1 on aggregate, before Saha, Rodwell and Pienaar helped Everton to a 5-1 aggregate play-off win. Sigma are still yet to grace the group stage of a European competition.

 

2011 then saw Sigma lose their first Czech Cup final on penalties to Mlada Boleslav, but they would be back with a 1-0 win in the final against Sparta Prague in the 2012 final a year later. Even since then, Sigma have had two relegations (2014 and 2016), two promotions (2015 and 2017) and a European qualification (2018), again losing out on Europa League Group stage football to Sevilla in the playoff.

 

Last season, Sigma finished a respectable 8^th, but they’ll need to shake off a slow start this season if they are to match or better it. Who's to say they won't be welcoming giants to Olomouc once again?