The Tumultuous World of Dukla Praha

Josef Mazopust; arguably the greatest Czech footballer of all time.

 For many people, Dukla Praha will only be a familiar name to a certain kind of British hipster, given that the club lend their name to indie outfit Half Man Half Biscuit's renowned 'All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit'. That said, there's a hell of a lot more than what meets the eye with this club, who've endured highs and lows to extents that would make Portsmouth's recent history look like a succession of top half Premier League finishes.

This is a club that, after all, have two founding dates on their Wikipedia page - 1948 and 1998. So before we even begin to look into this weekend's fixture of choice - Dukla Praha v Hradec Kralove - let's dive into one of Czech Republic's most complicated teams. 

Initially founded as ATK Prague in 1948 (Armádní tělovýchovný klub, which translates as Army Sports Club), the club won eight league titles in the first seventeen years of its existence. The name became Dukla in 1956, which has become commonplace for army teams. In Czech Republic and Slovakia, you also have Dukla Banska Bystrica, as well as hockey club Dukla Jihlava to name but two. 

Of course the main man for Dukla and a huge reason for their success was Josef Masopust, who is arguably the greatest Czech footballer of all time. So much so that his statue can be seen at the front of the Dukla stadium.

Though league titles were fewer in the seventies and eighties at just three, Dukla were still an enormously successful institution on the European stage, perhaps most notably making the semis of the Cup Winners' Cup of 1986, seeing of AEL Limassol, AIK Stockholm, and Benfica, before a 4-1 aggregate loss to Dynamo Kyiv. 

Their last European adventure was in 1990, and this began a hugely troubling decade for one of Czechoslovakia's most iconic and decorated football clubs, as the dissolution of Czechoslovakia led to the formation of the Czech league. Their first season in it back in 1993/94 was an unmitigated disaster, with the club suffering its first ever relegation on a mere ten points.

While the likes of Sparta were hoovering up sponsorship deals, Dukla were not able to garner the same commercial appeal to compete any longer with their city rivals. Even the nineteen appearances of Czech icon Pavel Nedvěd weren't enough to do anything for Dukla - their days were numbered.

An arms trader, a hotelier, and...a killer?

No, this isn't the start of some bizarre joke, merely a brief description of Bohumir Ďuričko, who purchased FK Příbram in 1996. They were playing in the second tier at the time, with the two clubs merging,  eventually becoming Dukla Příbram in 1998, and ultimately killing the club for a brief time. He also killed a man in 2008, and was duly arrested. Released in 2017, he changed his name and eventually died aged 70 in January 2024.

As you might expect, Ďuričko's buyout did not go down well with the fans of Dukla Praha, whose history was essentially taken away by Příbram. Moreover, the less said about Příbram and their uncanny ability to hover like vultures over struggling clubs, the better. Just look at their recent buyout of Vyškov's second tier licence. I try to be impartial when talking about Czech football, but honestly, Příbram are a perfect example of everything wrong with it.

Thankfully, football did return to Juliska, but not until 2001, when the club merged with Dukla Dejvice to join the fifth tier Prague Championship. They were relegated to the sixth tier in 2003, but bounced back immediately. After some years of fifth tier stasis, Dukla Praha bought a second tier licence of their own from Tatran Jakubčovice in 2007. So Dukla Prague became Příbram, before Tatran Jakubčovice became Dukla Prague.

As I always say, Czech football is an absolute mess in so many ways, with licences changing hands willy nilly on a regular basis. In 2011, Dukla Prague won the 2nd League and were back in the top flight for the first time since the nineties. They managed to become a fixture of the top flight over the next seven years, even buying back their history and silverware from Příbram in 2013.

Even though Dukla were relegated in 2019, they returned to the top flight in 2024, and now boast the distinction of being streets ahead of Příbram. Then again, so do most of the Czech top flight...and second tier...and Rokycany in the cup recently...

In any case, this all leads us to today's game between Dukla Praha and Hradec Kralove, with both clubs sitting on 5 points and in need of a win to turn a poor start into an average one. That said, Dukla's recent win over Viktoria Plzen was highly impressive, with Hradec finally gaining their first win last season at home to a Sigma Olomouc side probably exhausted from their Europa League trip to Malmo.

Dukla Praha 1-1 Hradec Kralove

The great thing about living in Brno is that Prague is only a few hours away, and is definitely doable in a day. That said, that last hour on one of the late trains back can feel like something of an eternity. I took the 11.48 to Prague, so as not to be too exhausted by the time I returned to Brno, and it paid dividends. If anything was going to exhaust me, it was probably the first half of this game. Oh, and that bloody staircase which I'll come onto later.

In any case (not stair), getting to Dukla Prague is fairly easy from the main station - you take the 26 tram to Hradčanská (or you can take the subway), then you can either get the 131 bus to Dukla-Juliska, or you can simply walk it if you have enough time and energy. I had both of the latter, so that was exactly what I'd decided to do.

The walk was an absolute delight, and I passed by many tempting bars and restaurants that would suffice for any return trips in future. Once you get to Terronská, it's pretty much a straight walk ahead. I knew I'd reached nearby when the dulcet tones of Van Halen's 'Jump' became apparent near the Grand Hotel International (pictured below). At first, I thought somebody in the nearby apartment building had a particular penchant for classic synth rock, but it was coming from Stadion Juliska.

From there, you essentially follow the synth rock, or whatever happens to be playing, then head up the aforementioned staircase, which leads you to the Josef Masopust statue. From there it's a short walk to the main stand, which is...well, massive. I've experienced some steep stands in my time, but Dukla may well be the steepest. Even St James' Park's infamous away end didn't feel as steep. 

I grabbed some beer and bramborak (a potato pancake - amazing), before heading to my seat. Though allocated, there were plenty of empty seats around, so I could basically sit anywhere. Though the capacity is around 8,000, only around 2,000 were in attendance for this game, with a fair few making the trip from HK. The noise was fairly solid throughout all things considered, especially given the first half wasn't exactly the greatest of viewing. Hradec took the lead just before half-time through Mick van Buren's initially offside tap-in, which VAR overturned.

Dukla were the much better side in a more eventful second half, with a few excellent chances falling their way. Substitute Jacques Fokam made an almost immediate impact with an equalising goal on the 74th minute, and it should have given the hosts the energy and momentum to go on and win. Alas, it was a missed opportunity - probably for either team - to pull themselves away from danger.

Given the nature of Czech relegation, and the fact that more often than not only one team goes down, it seems unlikely that either of these teams will go down despite both looking fairly poor. That said, no chickens should be counted, given that one of these seasons, a second tier side is going to win that unwinnable promotion play-off.

All that said, Dukla seem to have enough about them on this evidence, and so do Hradec. There are definitely three worse teams, though Pardubice's recent ownership change could throw a spanner in the works.

So yeah - that's Dukla, and it's just about worth a visit, even if just for football hipster reasons, or if it's just a case of being in Prague when a game happens to be on. Slavia, Sparta, and to a lesser extent Bohemians may have fan numbers, but Dukla certainly aren't without their own unique charm.