Champions League birth garners the club millions of crowns Just five years ago, Viktoria Plzeň was a storied club stumbling through one of the worst seasons in its 100-year history. But just three months after capturing its first-ever Gambrinus liga title, the club has notched its biggest victory – and an even bigger payday –… Keep Reading
Prague, Kladno and Brno see ex-sports stars on election lists A shakeup in Czech political parties beginning with May’s general elections has resulted in an influx of former sports stars entering the political arena in the lead-up to fall local elections. Former international hockey goalie and now Sparta Praha hockey club’s General Manager Petr Bříza… Keep Reading
Some get rich, some get poor during soccer’s active off-season Last time Petr Sýkora’s team won the Stanley Cup, he was laid up in a nearby hospital. So there was no way a suspected broken foot was going to stop Pittsburgh’s veteran Czech winger from appearing at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena June 12 to party… Keep Reading
Goalie shuts down sports clothing line On the ice, foremost hockey goalie Dominik Hašek earned the nickname “Dominator” for being virtually unbeatable. Out of the rink, the two-time Stanley Cup champion used the moniker as a brand for his sportswear line. After retiring from professional hockey at the age of 43 this spring, Hašek had… Keep Reading
Caban is only second mountaineer to hit peaks without oxygen Nothing about Miroslav Caban screams world-class mountaineer. He eases into a chair at a McDonald’s on the outskirts of Prague wearing blue trousers, a blue sweatshirt and regular sneakers. He is obviously fit and muscular, but not unusually so — a svelte physique that could… Keep Reading
What to do with Strahov stadium? If everything goes as planned, that question, first asked in the aftermath of the 1989 Revolution when the country began to evaluate its massive, ugly communist-style structures in light of a renewed aesthetic sensibility, has finally been answered. Over the years, the Czech soccer association’s (CMFS) efforts to convince… Keep Reading
Michal Travnicek is paying the price for a careless foul. So is the Czech junior ice hockey team. The elite Chemopetrol Litvinov forward wrote himself out of the upcoming World Junior Championships – and out of international hockey – with a brutal foul during an international tournament in November. In a high-stick battle with Sweden’s… Keep Reading
The Czech national soccer team will face Spain, one of Europe’s most exciting teams, in a qualifying match for the 1998 World Cup in Prague’s Letna Stadium on Wednesday, Oct. 9. It will be the Czech team’s first match in this city since its astonishing silver-medal performance at Euro ’96 last summer. The upcoming match… Keep Reading
The Bohemian-Moravian Football Association (CMFS) is hoping to field a 12th man in the all-important European Championship qualifying match with Holland Wednesday, April 26. That “man” is Sparta Praha’s stadium. The 25-year-old stadium alongside the Letna plain in Prague 7 was closed for nine months in 1994 for a 62 million Kc ($2.4 million) renovation.… Keep Reading
The Czech tennis community breathed a sigh of relief Jan. 16 when Davis Cup captain Vladislav Savrda announced he had averted a players’ boycott of next month’s cup match in Italy. Martin Damm, Daniel Vacek, Cyril Suk and David Rikl announced last month that they were not available for the Czech-Italian matchup. They blamed the… Keep Reading
