The Football League needs a change. The attractiveness is in reducing the number of clubs

It was a football holiday. Slavia Prague played with AC Milan. She lost both matches (2:4, 1:3). The same Sparta Prague (1:5, 1:6). At the same time, these two round of 16 matches exposed the generally weak level of the Czech football league.

Historically, Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague are among the supra-regional football clubs that have fans all over the Czech Republic. They are also perceived as clubs where the best from other Czech clubs go, and from there to foreign European football leagues.

This established system was “hacked” by Viktoria Plzeň, in the past Teplice and Slovan Liberec also performed in European competitions. This is also why they invested in football stadiums in the past to meet the conditions for European Cups.

It is the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA European Conference League that are the main economic engine for leading football clubs across the European continent. At the same time, these competitions are among the most attractive matches for viewers, for which the television rights of various companies are being sought. This is because they are among the desired goods among television companies, which can charge for transmissions.

A football fan simply demands quality and is happy to pay for it. Either a seat directly in the stadium or a subscription at the TV screen.

When AC Milan and Liverpool came to Prague, both matches were sold out. Even though it was played in the two largest stadiums in the Czech Republic (Letná has a capacity of 18,349 and Eden has a capacity of 19,370), with rivals such as AC Milan and Liverpool, demand exceeded supply.

Suddenly, a stadium with a much larger capacity was missing. This is what Sparta Prague is striving for, which is aware that the Letná stadium no longer meets modern requirements and that its capacity cannot be increased either.

Slavia Prague, which plays in Eden, has a modern football arena. The third largest capacity stadium in the Czech Republic is Stínadla in Teplice (18,221 seats), and that is missing the fourth undelivered grandstand, which would have increased the capacity many times over.

The Czech football fan is already doing so well economically that he is willing to pay large sums for entrance fees for a Champions League or Europa League match, just to be able to attend the match in person. However, due to the small capacity of the auditorium, Czech clubs do not earn as much as they could from the entrance fee. At the same time, their opponents (whether it’s AC Milan or Liverpool) earn many times more from the entrance fee at their home stadiums, even if Slavia or Sparta come to them.

For interest: Anfield in Liverpool has a capacity of 61,000 seats (59,581 spectators attended the match with Sparta). Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro), where AC Milan plays its home match, has a capacity of 75,817 seats (for the match against Slavia, the stadium had 64,642 spectators).

From simple “merchant” calculations, we can see that Sparta and Slavia lost a lot of money on the entrance fees, while their rivals gained from it.

Another “limiting” factor is the relatively large number of average stadiums, where not a single one fulfills the higher number of seats for spectators. Hence not even the possibility of playing a more important tournament in the Czech Republic.

Of course, it can be argued that the situation in Italy, Spain, England and Germany is completely different from the Czech reality, but the economy works the same everywhere.

Jindřich Trpišovský, the coach of Slavia, was asked how many spectators, according to him, could come to the top matches in the Czech Republic. That is, if the capacity of the two largest stadiums was not limited to 20,000 seats.

“If I take into account what I heard and the universal message that I had to prepare that there were no tickets, I guess it could be double the capacity. Maybe even higher. It would be similar to European games in big stadiums and I think a fifty thousand attendance could be. It could be similar for European matches, AC Milan or Liverpool, there is a hunger for it,” he responded.

Sparta, for example, would sell out such an arena. There was also interest from unexpected places. For example, the Egyptian embassy requested twenty VIP tickets plus free passage to the Liverpool cabin. The ambassador would like to meet Mohamed Salah, the main star of the England team.

Another sore point of the Czech football league is the average quality of the first league teams, when Sparta and Slavia will show their limits in a direct confrontation with the teams of the English and Italian leagues.

In essence, we have seen Europe collide with reality. Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool’s German coach, seems to have summed it up perfectly on the eve of the match: “Sparta certainly have a good team, but they haven’t played us yet.” The Premier League, that’s really a different level.

And that’s what it’s all about, according to the saying, the one-eyed man is king among the blind. By Czech standards, Slavia, Sparta and Plzeň are among the top clubs, but the quality of the Czech league is reduced by average teams. Since the division of Czechoslovakia, we perceive them as the first league, but if we look at history, at the Czechoslovak first league, we will find out which clubs were considered the top ones.

Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, Dukla Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Spartak Trnava, Baník Ostrava. These are the six teams with the largest number of logo titles in the Czechoslovak league.

Czech teams mainly played in the Czech National Football League. It was founded in 1969 in connection with the federal organization of Czechoslovakia, it disappeared in 1993 during its disintegration. In the 1991-1992, 1992-1993 seasons it was called the Czech-Moravian Football League, abbreviated ČMFL.

If we want to find out where the new first division clubs in the Czech football league came from in 1993-1994, it is from the second division.

Although Viktoria Žižkov won the league, Drnovice, Plzeň, Cheb, Liberec and Zlín also advanced.

Jablonec nad Nisou, Opava, Havířov and Pardubice also regularly played in the second league.

By the fact that six teams advanced to the first year of the first Czech football league, the second league was supplemented by teams from a lower competition, i.e. suddenly Blšany, Teplice played in it…

There are 18 teams playing in the German 2nd Bundesliga and we can also find famous clubs in it. As early as 1972, the Germans realized that it would be appropriate to establish a second professional football competition alongside the prestigious 1st Bundesliga, which would be attractive in terms of quality as well as spectators. In addition, in great Germany, the land of football, it was appropriate to establish another qualitatively advanced competition.

The second Bundesliga is one of the most popular non-elite league competitions in Europe, as evidenced by the fact that it was home to three of the five second division clubs in terms of attendance in the 2018-2019 season – Hamburg (1st), Cologne (2nd) and St. Pauli/Hamburg (5th). Dynamo Dresden also belonged to the ten most visited clubs. The average attendance of the 2. Bundesliga was 41 thousand spectators in the 2016-2017 season and 44 thousand spectators in the 2017-2018 season.

It could be similar in the Czech Republic, if we return to the reduced number of Fortuna League participants. So, from 16 teams to reduce the number to 12 teams.

In order to ensure the attractiveness of the 1st and 2nd football leagues, there would be a reduction in the number of clubs. In the Fortuna league with 12 teams, when they would intensify the matches between themselves, just like in hockey. There would also be a reduction in the Fortuna National League. The same works in Austria.

The second league would be played by 14 teams instead of 16 clubs. A large part of the second league would be made up of teams from the original first league, thereby increasing the quality of the second league and stabilizing it financially.

The second league would become an attractive football competition especially for teams from the regions.

The new 12-team first league could become the elite first Czech football league. There would be pressure on quality and attractiveness, where the main goal would be regular participation in cup matches.

That there would be a bigger “game team” where there would be no weak matches. But Sparta and Slavia, for example, would be under more pressure. This would force them to change the current style, when they reign sovereignly in the Czech league, but if “the going gets tough”, then it will end up with both Liverpool and AC Milan.

Of course, the author of this comment is aware that it is not that simple, but it is time for a big debate about changes. Otherwise, in England and Italy they will constantly laugh at us…