Menzel's Czech Fitba Thread

[oneteaminglasgow]

15 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

That was mentioned in a previous post as 3 examples of Czech Racism this season that no one, including me disputed.

I also pointed out that there have been at least 3 in recent weeks within Scottish football.

As I mentioned before, but you have obviously missed. I was trying to explain what was being reported in the Czech media. Not justify it or say I agree with it. You and others have spouted pish I haven’t said and are now saying I am an apologist for racism. That’s why I stopped, to many folk looking for an agenda and making shit up

I mean, as far as I know the three incidents* in Scottish football have been individuals making racist comments which, while obviously abhorrent, isn’t really the same as an entire crowd booing all the black players, and particularly targeting the one who was racially abused by a player from a different Czech team 6 months ago. 

*I’m assuming you’re meaning the lower league ones. I’m aware that Scotland, and particularly the Rangers support, has an issue with anti-Irish racism, but that’s a separate point here. 

[vikingTON]

17 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

A fucking backwater. Time for UEFA to make a stance and ban all Czech clubs from European football until they can learn not to racially abuse people.
 

Agreed. And by the same token, UEFA should therefore ban all Scottish clubs for the repeated and clearly audible terrorist chanting at a Scottish club's home tie last night, as well as the endemic anti-Irish racism of Scotland's other main representative. 

[diegomarahenry]

1 minute ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

I mean, as far as I know the three incidents* in Scottish football have been individuals making racist comments which, while obviously abhorrent, isn’t really the same as an entire crowd booing all the black players, and particularly targeting the one who was racially abused by a player from a different Czech team 6 months ago. 

*I’m assuming you’re meaning the lower league ones. I’m aware that Scotland, and particularly the Rangers support, has an issue with anti-Irish racism, but that’s a separate point here. 

The Czech Republic, like Scotland has a racial problem within football. It is in a minority but it is there. As I described, some teams have more problems that others. Some teams have right wing Ultra groups. could any team say that they didn’t have that element in their support? I’m an Ayr fan and we 100% do., again, it is a minority but it is there and shows up every now and then, as recently as Saturday. 

I don’t think you can pigeonhole any racism as a different type though. Classing sectarianism in Scotland as not the same as actual racism is part of the problem with it. 
 

The gripe with journalists, fans and clubs over there is no longer about Kudela, it is the way they have been perceived during and since the incident and the injustice they have felt in the process. Rangers, Kamaras lawyer and the Scottish media have fed in to that, Kamara is the focus of it..

As I have mentioned before and many have misunderstood, I think racism was the motive behind some of what happened last night but not all.
 

*disclaimer. There are not my opinions but are presented as a representation of what is happening in the Czech media for peoples understanding. If you don’t agree with the above, can you please direct any anger at Czech journalist and not me. Thanks.

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

I wonder what an OF* match with 50,000 kids at it would be like?

Spoiler

Fucking horrific I would imagine.

 

[GNU_Linux]

Slavia doing Slavia things

SLAVIA PRAGUE are at the centre of new racist allegations after their assistant manager was accused of calling an opposition player a 'monkey', just months after defender Ondrej Kudela was banned for abusing Rangers star Glen Kamara by the same insult.

Rangers' Europa League tie with Slavia last season descending into mayhem after Kudela shouted at the Finnish international during the game, with Rangers making an official complaint that Kamara was labelled a 'f***ing monkey' by the veteran Czech stopper.

UEFA later found him guilty of racist abuse and banned him for ten matches causing him to miss Euro 2020. He's currently awaiting a final decision after taking his second appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The bad blood continued this season with Rangers facing Slavia's great city rivals Sparta Prague in the same tournament and Kamara was booed by up to 10,000 kids in the stadium, although UEFA took no action on the matter.

It even reached diplomatic levels with the UK ambassador, Nick Archer, summoned to meet Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek amid demands for apologies.

 

However, Slavia No.2 Pavel Rehak is now at the centre of a huge storm after a powderkeg league clash with Viktoria Plzen, where the visitors were reduced to eight men.

One of the three players sent off was Colombian Jhon Mosquera who posted a picture of the Slavia assistant manager on social media and stated: "This stupid man called me a monkey.

"I hope I don't meet him alone on the street, because I would smash his face."

And his club backed him up in a statement. They said: "The club stands firmly behind its player, whom we fully trust and has our maximum support.

"We therefore ask the home club to thoroughly investigate the entire incident and, if necessary, to severely punish the specific culprit.

"We consider Slavia's behaviour absolutely undignified. The worst moment came when Jhon Mosquera went to the stand and listened to swearing not only from the crowd, but unfortunately also from the Slavia coaching staff.

 

"According to him, one of them even insulted him racially, which our player pointed out immediately after the match in the dressing and subsequently on social networks."

Slavia have so far refused to comment on the incident.

Rangers face Sparta Prague later this month at Ibrox in a Europa League Group Stage tie, which is certain to be a fiery encounter.

[diegomarahenry]

42 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said:

Slavia doing Slavia things
 

 

The member of staff accused has put out a fairly robust statement denying any comment. Including the fact he was not within 15 meters of the player so can't understand why no one else on either bench or any players, fans or pitch side microphones picked it up. 

https://www.slavia.cz/clanek.asp?id=Osobni-vyjadreni-Pavla-Rehaka-18836

The club has also put out a statement on the matter, so I'm not sure why the Evening Times wouldn't have quoted that........ They have offered to have a full independent investigation and have asked the broadcaster for all footage to be reviewed.

The player making the accusations has also accused the referee of corruption, referee has been backed by the Czech FA. They use VAR in the Czech top flight. 

https://www.slavia.cz/clanek.asp?id=Vyjadreni-SK-Slavia-Praha-k-nedelnimu-utkani-18839

Three Plzen players were sent off, including Mosquera in the game that Slavia won 2-0. 

[diegomarahenry]

The Czech league returns from its winter break this weekend, The first round of fixtures since the 19th December. 

Plzen have spent a great deal of money trying to recover from their almost 2 year slump, manager Michal Bilek, a hugely experienced manager took over last season and has improved their fortunes. A defeat to Slavia in October, followed by a draw with Sigma meant they were knocked off top spot but thanks to a surprise draw with Banik are only a point behind Slavia. 

Sparta have been a lot more consistent this season and have kept a challenge going and are currently 3 points off top. 

At the bottom end of the table, Karvina look favourites to go down, 5 points from 19 games, 12 points from safety. Last seasons over achievers Pardubice have struggled somewhat this season and are currently in 13th, just above the relegation zone, a point behind Bohemians. 

In league one. Brno are running away with the league with a 10 point gap. A team I have a soft spot for, Viktoria Zizkov, who were in the top flight recently could be about to drop in to the regional leagues. 

Transfer wise,  Almost all transfers were internal, the very few exceptions were players moving west from Armenia and Georgia. Slavia, Sparta and Plsen have all plundered the best talent from the teams below them. Czech football is becoming like many leagues where one or two teams who are regularly in Europe start to dominate domestically, Czech football appears to have a better trickledown of money through transfers. 

Sparta and Slavia are both in the Europa conference, Sparta dropping from the Europa league and Slavia from the Champions league, via the Europa league. 

Slavia have been poor this season despite being top. Injuries to Provod, Boril, Sevcik, Holes and Kolar haven't helped. Stanciu has just agreed a 4 million move to China which will weaken them further. They are going through a similar transition to Celtic a few years ago, no real domestic challenge, a squad of developed, overperforming players that were sold on with an expectation of developing more rather than reinvesting in the playing squad. Now they have a challenge, they have an aging. injury prone team and a lot of talent wanting away after featuring in Europe. 

[diegomarahenry]

The Czech top flight has paused for the world cup and will then move to the winter shut-down, meaning the next fixtures are planned for the 28th of January. 

Plzen are currently top, having got 14 games unbeaten they finally lost two weeks ago to Sparta, Czech football operate with VAR, in the match, Plzens Tomas Chory's headbutt was not a booking and VAR did not intervene. 

Plzen go in to the break 2 points clear of Slavia. 

Sparta currently sit third, their sketchy form of recent years has continued, drawing a third of their games. Sparta as a club have adopted a firmer stance on the unsavoury aspects of their support involving lengthy bans a fines, this prompted a protest from their hardcore support, 

 

https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/sport-fotbal-jina-liga-tahnete-domu-sparta-se-za-dramatickych-okolnosti-zbavuje-divokeho-jadra-218976

 

Slavia have had a fairly miserable season so far, a combination of injuries and selling the best players has meant a mediocre league campaign and an exit from the Conference league after the group stages. Selling Stanchu to China, Kucher to Locomotive Moscow and Bah to Benfica along with injuries to Boril, Provod and goalkeeper Kolars struggles with mental health have taken its toll. They sit two points off top. 

https://www.idnes.cz/fotbal/prvni-liga/ondrej-kolar-fotbal-slavia.A221028_173834_fotbal_ald

Bohemians enjoyed some good early season form but have since fell away and are currently in seventh. Pardubice, who were promoted two years ago have struggled badly this season. An upturn in results in recent weeks, including a draw with Plzen this weekend mean they are eight points from safety. 

Dukla are still struggling in league one, 2 points off bottom. 

 

[diegomarahenry]

An interesting video about Czech top flight stadiums, I'd listen to it on silent, the guy talking is a dick. 

It puts the bland, Post Taylor report stadiums in Scotland in the shade with the unique designs. 

 

Probably none as unique as The great Strahov stadium. 

 

[diegomarahenry]

Forward, Bojan Dordic of Czech second league Varnsdorf pulled a knife of the clubs goalkeeping coach after an argument in training. 

https://sport.ceskatelevize.cz/clanek/fotbal/2-liga/drama-ve-varnsdorfu-dordic-hrozil-nozem-trenerovi-a-skoncil-na-policii-pise-isport/635908aeafe18939c994a7c0

[diegomarahenry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnRHnhbuUFY

[diegomarahenry]

Pardubice open their new stadium this weekend, playing Slavia in a league fixture. 

 

After a visit today, the Slavia chairman tweeted the following picture of the away end

An away end that would make the majority of Tayside police erect. 

[diegomarahenry]

The Czech top flight is reaching the final two games of the regular season before the three way split. 

Pilsen, who invested heavily in the summer, were top coming out of the winter break had a slight implosion in the spring fixtures and have dropped to third. They look likely to finish in third place and qualify for European competition with fourth placed Bohemians being 8 points behind and having payed a game more. 

in almost a reverse of Pilsens form, Sparta have improved dramatically over the same period. They were in danger of becoming an irrelevance in Czech football, continually being out of the title race and becoming the third team in Czech football. One of the reasons for the upturn was signing Former Slavia player and Czech international Jan Kutchta on loan from Lokomotiv Moscow, pitching in with 11 goals in 23 games. 

Slavia had a couple of wobbles in the Spring campaign, Most notably a defeat to relegation threatened Ceske Budejovice and a draw with bottom half team Liberec. They led twice in the recent game with Sparta but ultimately drew the game. 

A return of long term injured players like Provod and Holes have helped, Czech International David Hovorka was forced to retire this season due to injury. Peter Olayinka received a 4 match ban for channelling his inner Aaron Muirhead and sticking the nut on an opponent. 

https://twitter.com/DenikSport/status/1637388967644393474?s=20

 

At the bottom end, Zlin, who were a surprise package a few years ago, being promoted and qualifying for European football have dropped to the automatic relegation spot, Pardubice look likely to finish in one of the relegation play-off places. 

All Cech top flight games are available free on one football

https://onefootball.com/en/home

Who will come up from the second tier this season is anyone's guess, with 6 games to go there are 12 points separating the top 10 clubs. 

 

[highlandmac]

How many games are played post split?

[diegomarahenry]

18 hours ago, highlandmac said:

How many games are played post split?

The top 6 play each other once, the teams finishing 1st and 3rd get three home games. 

The middle 4 go in to a play-off, 7th play 10th and 8th play 9th home and away. The winners of the two semi-finals then play head to head, the winner did get a European place but I think they lost the extra place a couple of years ago and it is a financial reward now. 

The relegation group play each other once, 11th and 13th get three home games. The bottom club is relegated, the teams in 14th and 15th play-off against the teams 2nd and 3rd in the national league. 

[diegomarahenry]

Sparta played Plsen in the penultimate regular season fixture last night. After Slavia's 2-0 win away to Ostrava on Tuesday, Sparta needed the win to stay level on points. 

Sparta win the game thanks to a penalty 9(Nine) minutes in to injury time. 

 

The last round of post split games kick off at 2pm UK time on Sunday. 

[diegomarahenry]

Sparta finished the regular league games two points clear of Slavia after the last round of post split fixtures. Slavia drew 1-1 with Hradec Kralove while Sparta, who were 1-0 down, away to Liberec after 90 minutes, somehow managed to win the game 3-1 thanks to a 90+1 and 90+10 minute penalty and adding a third in 90+15. 

The penalties were both in the soft category and both went to VAR and were upheld. Scotland isn't the only country where VAR decisions favour the big teams. 

https://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/fotbal-1-liga-rocnik-2022-23/430896/priske-prvni-pule-neakceptovatelne-mluvil-o-zranenych-i-vyhode-v-derby.html 

[diegomarahenry]

Sparta were tonight crowned champions of Czechia after a goalless draw with Slovacko. 

Despite Slavia being 3 points behind and with a superior goal difference, in the event of a tie, it is the team with the best head to head record post split that wins the league. 

[diegomarahenry]

The Czech league returns tomorrow. With the top flight teams winning their play-off matches, there is only one new(ish) team in the league. Karvina who are a bit of a yo-yo club. 

The transfer activity at the top clubs has again been mostly domestic. The main transfer news was outgoing players from the Czech league, Slavia's Olayinka moved to Red Star Belgrade & David Jurasek moved to Benfica and Sparta's Tomas Cvancara joined Borussia Monchengladbach. 

Slavia have continued their philosophy of signing young Nordic players as well as good talent from other top flight teams, 23 year old Norwegian Conrad Wallem joined from Odd BK along with  Serriff Sinyan from Molde and domestically, picked up Muhammed Tijani from Ostrava & Mojmir Chytil from Olomouc. 

On the European front, Champions Sparta join the champions league in the third qualifying round (same stage as Rangers)

Slavia join the Europa league at the third qualifying round (The stage before Aberdeen join)

Plzen and Bohemians both join the Conference league at the second qualifying round (the same round as Hibs)

 

 

[diegomarahenry]

8 weeks in to the Czech season and the formula has continued on from last season with Sparta and Slavia matching each other blow for blow. 

Both teams are joint top, unbeaten with one draw. Sparta have out-gunned Slavia by 8 goals though and are currently top. 

The Czech sides had a bumper European qualification round, Sparta dropped out of the Champions League and joined Rangers in the Europa League, Slavia qualified also and Plzen are through to the group stages of the Conference league. 

The Czech transfer window is still open until the end of the month, Slavia lost Lingr to Feyenoord and brought in Andreas Dumitrescu. Sparta have signed Ecuadorian Angelo Preciado from Genk. 

Sunday at 5pm UK time will be the first derby of the season when Slavia host Sparta.