Will the gap ever close? A foregone conclusion in Uherské Hradiště
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 ...