Prague Sport Introduction - Football

Should you wish to take in a sporting event during your stay in Prague..

Prague Sport Introduction - Football
Prague Football
The season usually runs from August until June with a winter break from late November until late February. Tickets for league games will rarely cost more than 200 CZK, while tickets for big international matches can usually be had for around 750 CZK.

Below, we give you the lowdown on Prague's four most famous teams, first-division Sparta and Slavia, and second-division Viktoria Žižkov and Bohemians 1905:

Sparta Prague
Home: Toyota Arena (also known as Letná), Milady Horákové 98, Prague 7
Website: http://www.sparta.cz
Colors: Dark red jerseys, dark red shorts.
Sparta currently play home games at the 22,000-capacity Toyota Arena stadium - popularly known as Letná - which also hosts the Czech national team's big games. Formed in 1893, the club has become the biggest and most successful of the three Prague teams in the Gambrinus League. Sparta, who play their football in a compact 20,000 all-seater stadium gain vital income from their exploits in the European Champions League. Indeed, monies from the competition have helped them make considerable improvements to the stadium in recent years.


Slavia Prague
Home: Stadion Evžena Rošického, Diskařská, Prague 6-Strahov
Website: http://www.slavia.cz
Colors: Red-and-white-halved jerseys, white shorts.
Slavia was originally established as a debating society and is traditionally associated with the middle classes. Among Slavia fans today, you'd struggle to make this distinction, though their supporters would argue that the team plays a more refined style of football than the ruffians at Sparta.
In recent years Slavia have bought through talented young players like Patrick Berger, Vladimir Smicer and Karel Poborsky only to lose them to bigger clubs abroad.

Viktoria Žižkov
Home: Stadion FK Viktoria Žižkov, Seifertova 130, Prague 3
Website: http://www.fkviktoriazizkov.cz
Colors: Red-and-white stripes, white shorts
Formed in 1903 in the working class district of Žižkov, the club has always been the poor relation of the three Prague teams, playing mainly in the minor divisions. The 8000 capacity stadium has certainly seen better days and lacks the facilities needed by a modern club to develop further (plans are afoot however to build a new venue). Žižkov's exceptionally modest stadium wouldn't look out of place in the third or fourth division of some Western European leagues, and their fan-base contains a disproportionately high number of pensioners. That said, matches here - particularly local derbies - can be quite atmospheric.


Bohemians
Home: Stadion TJ Bohemians Praha, Vršovická 31, Prague 10
Website: http://www.fc-bohemians.cz
Colors: Green jerseys, white shorts.
This much-loved Prague team owes its name and the kangaroo on its badge to a 1920s tour of Australia. (The team, representing Bohemia, called themselves the Bohemians for the trip; their hosts gave them a live kangaroo as a gift.) The team was one of Czechoslovkia's best in the 70s and 80s, and won their only league title in 1983.