We're shifting back to our football cities series today and after looking at Barcelona in the last instalment we saw the most professional teams in the league system so far including a youth team owned by a beer company.
However, the city we're looking at today might never be rivalled for it's sheer volume of football clubs. Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and whilst it attracts plenty of tourists, the city is vastly divided in terms of its football allegiances. There are five teams from the capital that have been in the top flight alone and the two most famous Czech teams both hail from Prague.
https://youtu.be/J6sw13aEEaY
We'll start with Sparta Prague who are domestically the most successful Czech club. They have won a record 36 domestic league titles and record 27 Czech Cups although both were formerly based in Czechoslovakia and included the likes of Slovan Bratislava as well as the other Czech teams. The Reds were formed in 1893 by three brothers who came up with the famous red, blue and yellow tricolour that now sits at the bottom of the teams badge.
Iron Sparta were for a long time the main provider of players to the Czechoslovakian national team and the side had a real golden age in the late 1950's and early 1960's when the national team finished runners up in the 1962 World Cup. The club won the Mitropa Cup three times as well which was a sort of Central Europe Champions League and even reached the semi-final of the European Cup itself in 1992. Some of the famous players that have come from Sparta include Jan Koller,
Petr Cech and
Tomas Rosicky.
They've continued to maintain their rivalry with their closest competitors Slavia Prague though. Slavia are the second most successful club in the Czech Republic having won 21 league titles, 9 domestic cups and one Mitropa Cup. They are also one year older than their fiercest rivals having been founded in 1892 by a group of medical students.
Slavia went on an impressive Europa League run last season despite losing some key players in the summer as they made their way to the quarter-finals by navigating past Leicester and Rangers before being beaten by Arsenal. The run was marred by a racist incident with Rangers' Glenn Kamara and the player involved was given a ban. On top of that, they are also the current holders of the Czech title, winning the league last season. Despite that the club has still produced some top talents including legendary goalscorer Josef Bican and new West Ham favourites
Tomas Soucek and
Vladimir Coufal.
As we said though, there are five teams from the capital who have been in the top flight. The next oldest are Bohemians Praha 1905 who were originally known as AFK Vrsovice but changed their name to Bohemians in 1927 when they were invited to go on a tour of Australia which is also where the Kangaroo on their badge came from. The Kangaroos have a much more modest history but have been domestic champions on one occasion, lifting the trophy in 1983.
The next side to have been in the top flight is Dukla Prague who were formed in 1958 as FK Dukla Dejvice but now bear the name of a much older Dukla Prague side who no longer exist. The original side were formed in 1948 and were champions of the Czechoslovakian league on 11 occasions but in in 1996 they were moved to Pribram and merged with another team 1. FK Pribram who now bear the teams history. The new Dukla Prague played in local competition until 2007 when they were granted entry into the the second division. From there, the club took four years to get promoted to the top flight where they spent 8 straight seasons until their relegation in 2019.
The last team who have been in the top flight and now reside with Dukla in the second division are FK Viktoria Zizkov. Zizkov was originally an independent city until 1922 when it became part of the capital. They have spent large spells in the top flight winning the league in 1928 but more recently winning the Czech Cup in 1994 and 2001.
There are other teams in Prague but most of them come from the local divisions that Dukla Prague came from. Either way for a smaller footballing nation the Czech's have had some great teams and Prague has been a hub for most of them.
