Groundhopping24

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 year...

The 2025/26 season is officially upon us, and for this week's blog, I'm heading down a different path from the norm. Last season, I made a Czech kit ranking into a Twitter thread , but this season, I'm turning it into a blog - mainly because there's currently too much month at the end of my money to attend the games I'd initially planned to attend and subsequently write about. Add to that the fact that the game I'd planned on attending and writing about has been called off because of the weather. I must now own at least twenty football shirts, and I'll gladly admit collecting them is a bit of an addiction. Despite calling myself a Zbrojovka fan, the only Czech shirts I own are a Sigma Olomouc home shirt from 2021-22, and a Czech national team shirt. Zbrojovka's shirt for this season may be the next one for my collection - perhaps in future I'll do a blog on some of my personal favourites in that collection. But for now, here's a ranking of all si...

I'd had Karvina's fixture with Mlada Boleslav pencilled in since the start of the season, given that I'd had to plan somewhat meticulously in order to complete the Czech First League this season. That probably won't be possible this  season following various scheduling issues and a brief illness, but barring any setbacks, I should only be left with two or three Czech First League grounds to visit next season. When the fixture was announced for the Sunday, I was a little annoyed initially, given that I tend to prefer attending games on Saturday before chilling on Sunday like a true Craig David. Then I realised there was an an opportunity to make a weekend of it with a tick in the Slovak League on the Saturday - you can check out my most recent blog on Ruzomberok here if you like. Given that I'd come back to Brno via Karvina on my way back from Zilina recently, it made sense to stop over on the way back and take in a club widlely (citation needed) known as the greenes...

 When taking a cursory glance at Slovan Liberec's Wikipedia page, one thing stands out in particular - since the formation of the Czech League as a result of Czechoslovakia's dissolution in 1993-94, Slovan Liberec have spent 31 seasons consistently in the top flight. Included within this timeframe are also three title wins and two cup successes, as well as many a European night since the turn of the millennium. Only Sparta and Slavia can boast similar top flight longevity as far as Czech football goes. But who exactly are Slovan Liberec, and why should anyone care at this point? After all, the team has been solidly mid-table since 2016, with only a 5th place finish in 2020 granting them their most recent European endeavour. Sadly it was the year of the pandemic, meaning fans couldn't enjoy their last foray into the Europa League, in which they saw off Riterai of Lithuania, FCSB of Romania and APOEL of Cyprus en route to the group stage.  They crashed out on seven points, wi...

Following two trips that spanned entire weekends to Prague and Gyor respectively, this weekend would allow for Saturday to be a rare free day of absolutely nothing. On Sunday, however, I would take a seemingly now annual December pilgrimage to my favourite place in Czech football, Sigma Olomouc, hence the despicably awful blog title. Apologies. As my first experience of Czech football, and despite my allegiances to Zbrojovka Brno, I can't help but hold the obligatory soft spot for Sigma Olomouc. That first game was a 1-0 success over Slovan Liberec, which I have written about some time ago . It wasn't the most entertaining of games, but at the point, the novelty of watching football in another country was still very much there. At the time, I also had no idea what would unfold in the coming months and years in terms of my moving to the Czech Republic. As a result, returning always feels somewhat special. The reason I chose to go to Sigma Olomouc was essentially on the back of a...

  Prague - a city I was fairly close to moving to once my planned move to Portugal was thrown up in the air by visa related jeopardy. As Portugal's doors seemed to close, Czech Republic announced a decision to open theirs, which meant I'd applied for jobs in Brno, Prague and Ostrava. If not for the job in Brno being the most solid choice, I probably would have opted for a move to the Czech capital. That said, I've often told people it's a place I love visiting but couldn't live in, much like London to a certain extent. I guess you could say it suffers from Capital City Syndrome, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it brings certain issues. In any case, I hadn't been to Prague for anything other than work or travel purposes since probably a year ago, so a late November weekend seemed the perfect time to make up for that. A couple of good friends offered to put me up, so I travelled down on Saturday morning with the intention of enjoying a cultur...

With a long gap between paydays, I only allowed myself one longer trip until the middle of next month - that being Mlada Boleslav. In my attempts to tick off every ground in the Czech First League, I wanted to get this one out of the way after all I'd heard about it. My expectations were low, with the greatest of respect to the club (who've come on leaps and bounds over the years), and the town. David and Sam of Zbrojovkast (who you should absolutely listen to) both told me the town was essentially a huge car factory. Given that the game against Pardubice would be a Sunday too, everything would be shut, bar the fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. And of course the football stadium from around 12 until 3-ish... Put simply, there was a lot riding on this game being at least semi-decent. I had hoped in my heart of hearts for a repeat of that famous (or infamous) 9-5 nonsense against Zlin last season. That kind of scoreline, however, is probably once in a lifetime. That said, t...

Last week, I received one of the more romantic email propositions I’d received from anyone, let alone a Czech football club. Picture the scene: your relationship is going down the pan, and you need to salvage something from it. What could be better than a stadium tour of the famous CFIG Arena of 4,200 seats? Though recently renovated, Pardubice’s current ground does have history dating back to the 1930s, even if the club itself has limited history of only 16 years. The arena has hosted all manner of sports, from speedway to athletics, as well as of course football. They moved back into the CFIG Arena at the start of last year, and enjoyed a surprise 2-0 victory over Slavia Praha. There probably aren’t too many better ways to return home, having spent many years in the wilderness, ground sharing with Bohemians since promotion to the First League in 2020. Not only was this another stadium, but it was some hour and a half away in the Czech capital.  They were only formed in 2008 as a ...

For those unfamiliar with Czechoslovak history, the country was dissolved in 1993, meaning the two separate states we see today - Czech Republic and Slovakia - became sovereign states. With that separation came two new football leagues in both countries, and the 1993-94 Czech First League season is exactly what this blog will be examining. So just who is/are Boby Brno? What on earth is a Cheb, and why should you care? Why are Vitkovice so bad nowadays? Well, all of these questions and more will be answered as we take a look back at the Czech League in its maiden year, and where the 16 teams featured in the ‘Class of 94’ ended up thirty years on.  Given that it’s the midway point of the season, positions indicated will be based on their current position at the time of writing (late January), and will indicate First League unless otherwise stated in brackets. I should also thank Callum Blyth for the inspiration with his excellent video on Scottish football with a similar idea, which...