It begins, like every modern sporting fairy tale, with the state-sponsored ownership of a football club by a geopolitical superpower. Five years ago, Slavia Prague were in dire financial straits and had been without a league title since 2009. Their owners, CEFC China Energy, was about to suffer a spectacular decline that would eventually end in bankruptcy. Enter CITIC Europe Holdings, a subsidiary of China’s biggest state-run investment conglomerate, CITIC group. Doesn’t it all make you feel warm inside.
We’ll pick that thread up again soon, but let’s skip to the Czech national team who, since the split with Slovakia in 1993, have experienced a decidedly odd existence. On the surface, they are one of Uefa’s great over-achievers of the last three decades. They have been in the top two of Fifa’s rankings on three occasions six years apart (England never have). They have had a Ballon D’Or winner and a major tournament Golden Boot winner. They have reached a major tournament final.
But the lows have been just as pronounced. The Czech Republic were ranked 58th in the world in 2017 and 47th in 2011. They have reached one World Cup since 1993, the golden team of 2006 that contained Pavel Nedved, Petr Cech, Jan Koller, Tomas Rosicky, Milan Baros, Tomas Ujfalusi, Marek Heinz and Tomas Galasek. They have reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship four times over the same period, but each time it was preceded and succeeded by a group-stage exit.
If the story of the Czech Republic is one of rapid rise and fall, they are sticking with the script. Three years after their lowest moment, a 5-1 friendly defeat to Russia in September 2018 that followed another failed World Cup qualifying campaign (they finished in third place behind Northern Ireland), they are peaking again.
Karel Jarolim was sacked and replaced by Jaroslav Silhavy, the former assistant coach during the glory years. Last summer, Silhavy’s team shocked Europe with their progression to the quarter-finals of Euro 2020, beating the Netherlands in the last-16. They face a two-round World Cup playoff in March; the coach insists they fear nobody.
Silhavy’s side are proudly industrious. Even their star player, Tomas Soucek, is regarded more for his physicality and set-piece prowess. But then there’s something in that West Ham connection, and not just because Vladimir Coufal and Alex Kral both started against Estonia on a biting November evening. You allocate so much of your focus towards the unfashionable, obviously coachable elements – work-rate, pressing, full-backs crossing from deep, set-piece delivery – that you underestimate the attacking flair. They soak up pressure and then hit you on the counter before you have steeled yourself to repel it. In Šilhavý’s team, the final finish usually comes from Patrick Schick.
And so back to China. If the latest re-rise of the Czech national team feels a little more sustainable than usual, less reliant upon one or two gloriously talented – and technical – players, that is because it reflects Slavia’s own redemption and the subsequent response from their city rivals.
CEFC – and then CITIC – were the first foreign owners in Czech football. Unsurprisingly, their investment didn’t simply secure Slavia’s economic future but allowed them to establish a position of some dominance. The takeover was met with significant mistrust from supporters, but four league titles in five years evaporated concerns and attendances grew. In the meantime, another Chinese company (property development and real estate giant Sinobo Group) became the majority shareholder; CITIC remains as a minority owner and there is some suggestion that this is more of a partnership arrangement.
In European competition, Slavia have made huge leaps forward (at least before this season’s qualification setbacks). They reached the Europa League quarter-finals in two of the last three years and drew against Barcelona and Inter in the Champions League group stage in the other. They eliminated Sevilla, Leicester City, Rangers and Nice.
The stars of those seasons dominate the national team setup. Soucek, Coufal and Kral joined West Ham. David Zima is now at Torino. Eleven other players currently contracted to Slavia have been called up in the last 12 months by Silhavy and other exports litter the national team squad. The starting XI that faced Estonia, with several players rested, were based in Serie A, Premier League, Eredivisie, Super League Greece and Turkey’s Super Lig. The success of Soucek in particular has alerted scouts that there are bargains to be found in Prague.
The interesting aspect of China’s investment in Slavia is that, against reasonable logic, it has not destroyed the competitive balance of the league. They have clearly become the title favourites each season, but the current top four in the Czech First League are separated by three points. The money has dripped down to other clubs through transfer fees. Viktoria Plzen (the dominant club before Slavia’s lottery win) and Jablonec have both finished in the top three in the last two seasons.
And Sparta have responded to their neighbours’ success by founding an identity of their own. In 2017-18, their squad was half-filled with foreign imports from countries including Romania, Turkey, Argentina, Gabon, Israel, Sweden, France, Zimbabwe and Ghana. Since then, a deliberate shift towards home-grown produce. Eight of Sparta’s ten most regular starters this season are Czech nationals and the two exceptions are Slovakians.
China’s investment in Czech football is merely reflective of a wider economic arrangement. The country was seen as an ideal target for China’s “soft touch” approach and the feeling was mutual. Xi Jinping referred to the Czech Republic as China’s key partner within the EU and Czech President Milos Zeman will visit China next year. Football is merely a tiny cog in a bigger geopolitical machine.
But it’s one that the Czech public are increasingly becoming enamoured with. The current surge of goodwill towards the national team partly depends upon next week’s playoff draw, but there is longer-term, sustainable optimism too. It reflects the hope that the success of Slavia’s owners might provoke foreign investment in other Czech clubs and that the success of Soucek, Coufal, Schick et al in major European leagues can form the start of yet another new era of Czech football.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3kO0wkW
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