SK Slavia Prague

Slavia Prague
Full name Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal a.s.
Nickname(s) Červenobílí
(The red and whites)
Sešívaní[nb 1]
Věčná Slavia
(The Eternal Slavia)
Founded 2 November 1892, as ACOS (Akademický cyklistický odbor Slavia)
Ground Eden Arena,
Vršovice, Prague 10, Prague
Ground Capacity 20,800
Owner CEFC China Energy
Chairman Jaroslav Tvrdík
Manager Jaroslav Šilhavý
League Czech First League
2016–17 Czech First League, 1st
Website Club website


SK Slavia Prague (Czech: SK Slavia Praha, pronounced [ˈsla:vja ˈpraɦa]) is a Czech professional football club founded in 1892 in the city of Prague. They are the second most successful club in the Czech Republic since its independence in 1993.[1]

They play in the Czech First League, the highest competition in the Czech Republic. They play the Prague derby with Sparta Prague, an important rivalry in Czech football. Slavia has won 18 titles, several Czech cups and the Mitropa Cup in 1938. The club has won four league titles since the foundation of the Czech league in 1993. They have also reached the semi-finals of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup and qualified for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in their history.

In addition to their men's squad, Slavia Prague has reserve, youth, women's, and futsal teams.

History

Slavia was founded on 2 November 1892 by medicine students in Vinohrady, Prague, as a sport club aimed at increasing sport activity among students. Initially the club focused on cycling, and expanded to football in 1896.[2] On 25 March of that year, Slavia won their first match against AC Prague 5–0.[2] Four days later, Slavia played against Sparta Prague, with the match finishing 0–0, this match being the start of the rivalry between these two clubs.[3][4] In 1905, Scottish manager and former Celtic player John Madden brought new tactics and views on football from his home country to the club. He managed to set up an early golden age for the club that lasted 25 years. Under Madden Slavia won 134 domestic matches out of a total of 169, and 304 internationals out of 429 between the years 1905 and 1930. In 1930, Madden retired from Slavia and professional football at the age of 66, though he remained in Prague for the rest of his life.

In the 1934 FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovak national team included eight Slavia players. The second golden period came when Slavia bought Josef Bican from Admira Vienna. Slavia with Bican won titles in 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943. In 1951 Slavia finished in 11th position in the league. Poor results continued during the 1950s and 1960s when Slavia were relegated twice, in 1961 and 1963. They next played in the top level of football in 1965.

In 1996, Slavia won their 14th title after 49 years.[5] During this season, Slavia played in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup and four players of this team had big importance for the silver-medal winning Czech team from UEFA Euro 1996.[6][7]

Slavia participated in the qualifying rounds for the UEFA Champions League five times (1996, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005), being eliminated each time until finally qualifying for the group stage in the 2007–08 season following a 3–1 aggregate victory over Ajax in the third qualifying round. For the group stage, Slavia were drawn in Group H along with Arsenal, Steaua București and Sevilla. They started with a 2–1 win at home against Steaua and a 4–2 loss to Sevilla. Next came two matches against Arsenal; Slavia lost 7–0 at the Emirates Stadium, but in the second leg they managed to draw 0–0. In Bucharest came a 1–1 draw, which qualified the Czech team for the UEFA Cup round of 32, from third place in Group H, in spite of a home 0–3 defeat against Sevilla.

In October 2006, the construction of the new and long-awaited stadium at Eden for 21,000 spectators began. The stadium was opened on 7 May 2008 with an exhibition match against Oxford University.[8]

In the 2007–08 and 2008–09, Slavia were back-to-back Czech champions, although they did not play in the Champions League group stage due to elimination in the qualifying rounds by Fiorentina (0–2 on aggregate in 2008–09) and Sheriff Tiraspol (1–1 on away goals rule in 2009–10). In the 2009–10 season the club managed only 7th place in the league.

In the autumn of 2010, the club found itself in crisis due to its economic problems. It was discovered that Slavia owed 112 million Czech koruna to the club's former owner, ENIC Sports Ltd (English National Investment Company).[9] As a result of this, major cost-cutting was needed to service this debt and it was confirmed that the squad would need to be purged.[9] In addition to the players sold, midfielder Petr Trapp left the club mid-season, claiming that Slavia had not paid his wages for three months.[10]

On 5 May 2011, a cup semi-final against Olomouc was cancelled due to protests of fans against the financial situation of the club.[11]

In September 2015, CEFC China Energy Company bought the team.

Historical names

Club symbols

Flag of SK Slavia Prague.


The club's colours, red and white, were chosen as standing for the heart and blood, and fair play and sportsmanship respectively. The inverted five-pointed star was intended to symbolise "new hope, forever strengthening the mind and uplifting the spirit."[2] The name "Slavia" is a Latin term used in older literature to denote the lands inhabited by Slavs.[12]

Rivalries

Slavia's greatest rivals are Sparta Prague, with whom they contest the Prague derby. A local Vršovice derby is also contested between Slavia and Bohemians 1905, whose stadium is situated a kilometre from Eden.[13]

Slavia is widely misconceived as being a Jewish club among other fans, particularly Sparta fans, and its fans and players are often subjected to anti-semitic abuse. However, the club was not founded by Jews nor did it have any Jewish history. Football historian Vladimír Zapotocký commented in an interview that were this the case, the Nazis would have shut the club down during the wartime occupation, as they did with DFC Prag. The association stems from a friendly match played against West Ham United in 1922, when Slavia insured the match against adverse weather conditions, and the match was later cancelled due to rain. They then agreed with West Ham to play the fixture the next day, while also collecting money from the insurance company for cancelling the fixture. A week later in a Prague derby fixture, Slavia were greeted onto the pitch by chants of "vy židi!" ("you Jews!") from the Sparta fans.[14]

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
3 Ukraine DF Eduard Sobol (on loan from Shakhtar)
4 Czech Republic DF Jakub Jugas
5 Turkey MF Halil Altıntop
6 Czech Republic MF Jan Sýkora
7 Portugal MF Danny
8 Czech Republic MF Jaromír Zmrhal
9 Turkmenistan MF Ruslan Mingazov
10 Czech Republic MF Josef Hušbauer
11 Croatia MF Marko Alvir
13 Cameroon DF Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui
14 Netherlands FW Mick van Buren
15 Norway DF Per-Egil Flo
16 Czech Republic GK Jan Laštůvka
No. Position Player
18 Czech Republic DF Jan Bořil
19 Ivory Coast DF Simon Deli
20 Czech Republic DF Jiří Bílek (Captain)
21 Czech Republic FW Milan Škoda
22 Czech Republic MF Tomáš Souček
23 Bosnia and Herzegovina MF Jasmin Šćuk
24 Bosnia and Herzegovina FW Muris Mešanović
25 Czech Republic DF Michal Frydrych
26 Slovakia MF Jakub Hromada
29 Ukraine MF Ruslan Rotan
31 Czech Republic GK Přemysl Kovář
81 Slovakia MF Dušan Švento

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Czech Republic GK Martin Berkovec (at Karviná)
Czech Republic DF Tomáš Valenta (at Sokolov)
Czech Republic MF Daniel Trubač (at Teplice)
No. Position Player
Czech Republic FW Zdeněk Linhart (at Olomouc)
Czech Republic FW Stanislav Tecl (at FK Jablonec)
Curaçao FW Gino van Kessel (at Oxford United)

Notable former players

The best known Slavia player of all time is perhaps forward Josef "Pepi" Bican, one of the most prolific goalscorers in the history of football. Other famous players include forward Antonín Puč, goalkeeper František Plánička (both of them members of the Czechoslovak national team in two World Cups) and midfielder František Veselý. Other big names in club history are: Karel Jarolím, Ivo Knoflíček and Vladimír Šmicer.[2]

Current technical staff

Managers

As of 9 August 2015. Only competitive matches are counted.

Honours

Domestic

Leagues

Winners (1): 1913
Winners (13): 1925, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, 1936–37, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42, 1942–43, 1946–47
Winners (4): 1995–96, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2016–17

Cups

Winners (7): 1941, 1942, 1945, 1974, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2001–02

Minor Championships

Winners (6): 1897 spring, 1897 fall, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901

European

Winners (1): 1938

History in European competitions

As of 2 August 2017 [15]

CompetitionPlayedWonDrewLostGFGAGDWin%
UEFA Champions League 30 10 7 13 25 42 −17 033.33
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 8 3 3 2 11 9 +2 037.50
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League 104 39 27 38 133 122 +11 037.50
Total 142 52 37 53 169 173 −4 036.62

UEFA club coefficient ranking

As of 06.06.2017, Source:

Rank Team Points
183Romania FC Petrolul Ploiești6.590
184Netherlands Heracles Almelo6.589
185Czech Republic SK Slavia Prague6.575
186Lithuania FK Žalgiris Vilnius6.425
187Austria SC Rheindorf Altach6.420

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Sešívaní means "stitched together", referring to the home kit with a red half and white half which were traditionally sewn together.

Citations

  1. ↑ "Historická tabulka". Synot Liga. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Běrný, Aleš. "Přesně před 120 lety založili studenti Slavii, klub funguje dodnes". iDnes. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Historie Zápasů – 1896". Slavia Prague. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "O derby. Proč a jak dlouho se nemáme rádi". Sparta Prague. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  5. ↑ Jeřábek, Luboš (2007). Český a československý fotbal – lexikon osobností a klubů (in Czech). Prague, Czech Republic: Grada Publishing. p. 163. ISBN 978-80-247-1656-5.
  6. ↑ SK Slavia Praha – official site
  7. ↑ SK Slavia Praha – official site
  8. ↑ "Czech champions Slavia too strong for Blues". Retrieved 13 Nov 2008.
  9. 1 2 "Konec sporů: Natland se dohodl se zástupci ENICu a uhradil dluhy Slavie". ihned.cz. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Fotbalista Trapp se po dvou letech vrací ze Slavie zpátky do Plzně". iDnes. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Zápas ukončete, přikázal velitel policejního zásahu, říká delegát". Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  12. ↑ Kollar, Jan. Sláwa bohyně a půwod gména Slawůw čili Slawjanůw.
  13. ↑ "A look ahead: Here comes SK Slavia Praha". Union Berlin FC. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "ZAUJALO NÁS: Kde se vzal pokřik jude Slavie?". Supporters.cz. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "Slavia Praha". Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
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