Football in Prague
The football in Prague developed with the founding of the first clubs in the early 1890s and the inaugural in spring 1896 Bohemian Football Championship. The two big city rivals Sparta and Slavia are traditionally regarded as the two "eternal rivals" of football in the Czech Republic .
history
Bohemia
The oldest club in Bohemia , and thus also in Prague, is AC Prague , which was founded in 1891, although its football department was only launched a few years later. In the same year the German ice and rowing club Regatta Prague was founded, which was later also enriched with a football department and from which the DFC Prague emerged in 1896 . The founding of Slavia followed in 1892 and Sparta a year later, both of which grew into football's great rivals in the Czech Republic and could hardly be more different: Slavia has always been a representative of the intellectual bourgeoisie and opposed both the Habsburg monarchy and later the National Socialist occupiers and the communist rulers . From the beginning, Sparta was considered a traditional workers' association, which quickly developed into the most popular association in the country and, at least in the communist era, had patrons at the highest level of government. Also in 1893, students from the Academic Gymnasium founded the ČFK Kickers , which won the first Bohemian football championship in the spring of 1896 in its favor. The second soccer championship, held in autumn of the same year, was won by the “German” DFC, which was one of the leading clubs in Bohemia until the end of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1917 and was once again awarded championship honors in 1917. The DFC also competed in games for the German soccer championship and reached the final against VfB Leipzig at the first edition in the 1902/03 season (albeit without a fight!) , Which lost 7-2 despite a 1-0 lead has been. In Bohemia itself, however, Slavia quickly developed into a serial champion who won the Bohemian football championship almost single-handedly until the outbreak of the First World War .
Czechoslovakia
With the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918 a change of power followed, because after Slavia's another league title right at the beginning of the game year 1918, Sparta, which only won the Czech soccer championship in 1912, won the Czechoslovak soccer championship five times in a row. The cornerstone for a bitter and lasting rivalry was laid. Because until 1948 Sparta and Slavia made the championship among themselves. Only in the 1927/28 season was the city rival Viktoria Žižkov, founded in 1903 from the Žižkov district in the east of the city, able to penetrate this phalanx and win the football championship for the only time in the club's history.
The absolute supremacy of the Prague clubs did not end until 1949, when the NV Bratislava was able to kidnap the championship title for the first time in the Slovak part of the country and defended it in the two following years. While Sparta was at least able to keep up to some extent after the Communists came to power, Slavia was literally dismantled. First, at the behest of the government, they had to leave their traditional home stadium in Letná ; an area north of the city center, in which almost all Prague clubs that had been founded in the 19th century had played their home games and which from then on was solely available to city rivals Sparta. Slavia was transplanted to Vršovice in the south-east of the city and came in close proximity to the Bohemians , who have always lived in the same district and won the only championship title in their club history in the 1982/83 season. The Bohemians, also known as “kangaroos”, who remained largely independent of politics during the communist era, rank third in the popularity of Prague's football fans. Since Slavia's forced move, the duels between the two clubs, whose stadiums are only about a kilometer apart, have been one of the most important derbies in Prague football.
Although Sparta had patrons in the communist government and was able to win four championship titles between 1952 and 1967, the "Iron" were soon no longer the number one sporting club in Prague, even if they continued to be the city's most popular club with the public. The army sports club founded in 1948, which was named Dukla in 1956 , was massively promoted by the communist rulers and built up into the top Czech team. This happened, among other things, by the withdrawal of some top performers of the massively disadvantaged Slavia team, which was also affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior and at times had to play under the (additional) name Dynamo in unfamiliar blue colors. But the army sports club, which has been located in the north-west of Prague since 1960, was never able to develop into a crowd puller, despite its eleven championship titles that it won between 1953 and 1982 and, for example, ranked last of all top division clubs in the 1980s with an average attendance of around 2,500.
Stages
It can therefore be described as ironic that the original army sports club (until 1994) now has the Prague stadium with the largest capacity, the Juliska stadium, which can seat around 28,000 spectators, while the stadiums of Sparta ( Generali Arena ) and Slavia ( Eden Aréna ) can only accommodate a good 20,000 visitors each, not to mention the small stadiums of Bohemka ( Ďolíček ) and Viktorka ( eFotbal Aréna ). The much larger Strahov Stadium in the west of the city, with an actual capacity for around 250,000 spectators, the largest stadium in the world , is now home to the Sparta Prague office and is only used as a training camp and venue for their reserve teams.
Czech Republic
After the separation of Slovakia and the Czech Republic , the new Czech football league was introduced in 1993 . The most frequent champion was Sparta Prague, which won twelve titles up to and including the 2013/14 season. Second place (with three titles each) is shared by Slavia Prague and Slovan Liberec , who both had no championship titles during the communist era. But the loss of the Slovak clubs had a negative impact on the attractiveness and level of the league. The consequences are a drastic drop in visitors and financial bottlenecks that afflict most clubs. Sparta Prague, which in the past often attracted more than 40,000 spectators per home game and which today can hardly boast more than 8,000 visitors, survives only thanks to its quality as a talent factory and the resale of its best players to more financially strong countries abroad.
Derby balance sheet Sparta vs Slavia
So far (as of April 30, 2015) a total of 283 derbies have been held between Sparta and Slavia. Sparta won 132 of them, while Slavia won 86 matches. The remaining 65 duels ended in a draw. The goal difference of 514: 418 also speaks for Sparta.
Sparta's record is similarly successful in the league, with 82 won and 48 of 165 derbies. The remaining 35 games ended in a draw. The goal difference is 282: 208 in favor of Sparta.
The highest derby victory dates back to November 24, 1907 and was won by Slavia 9-1. Sparta's greatest victory was recorded 8-1 on June 14, 1952. The highest-scoring derby took place on July 3, 1943 and ended 8: 4 for Slavia.
The most successful derby scorers are Josef Bican with 35 goals for Slavia and Josef Ludl , who scored 19 goals for Sparta.
Individual evidence
- ↑ SK Slavia vs. AC Sparta: Fiery football atmosphere at the Prague Derby (article from October 1, 2012)
- ↑ Omar Gisler: Football Derbies - The 75 football-madest cities in the world , Munich: Copress 2007, p. 192f / ISBN 978-3-7679-0883-3 .
- ↑ Omar Gisler: Football Derbies - The 75 football-madest cities in the world , Munich: Copress 2007, p. 194 f.
- ↑ Stefan Tarras: The great football clubs in the world. Munich: Copress 1989, p. 193 / ISBN 3-7679-0281-8 .
- ↑ Omar Gisler: The largest clubs in the world , Munich: Copress 2013, p. 462f / ISBN 3-7679-0827-1 .
- ↑ Sparta-Slavia Statistics (Czech; accessed on May 1, 2015)