Today I'm going back three years to 2019 and a bonus football match and opportunity to tick off a foreign football ground. Yesterday I covered England's visit to Prague to play the Czech Republic in a Euro2020 Qualifier. I had most of the next day to kill (never a problem in Prague) before my scheduled flight back to London and I spotted that there was a game on nearby that I could attend before heading to the airport. In the romantically named Bohemian Football League (CFL) A (effectively a regionalised Third Division), Loko Vltavin (in 7th place of 16) were taking on FC Slavia Karlovy Vary (14th place) at Loko's Stadion na Plynarne in the suburbs of Prague.
Armed with my Futbology and Apple Map apps, the Stadium proved to be a 20 minute walk from the nearest Metro station. The ground was very basic with seats along one side but not much else by way of spectator accommodation. I suspect that Czech Third Division matches tend not to attract large crowds and I estimated the attendance on this occasion to have been around 200 of which there were clearly a couple of dozen English football fans doing exactly the same thing as me!
The programme was given away free with admission which proved to be a problem when I asked if I could buy another for one of my programme collecting friends. My match ticket cost 50 Czech Crowns (CZK) which equates to around £1.80 and was probably even less at the time (thanks Liz Truss!). The programme is a 20-page photocopied delight. I can't read a word of it of course as it's entirely in Czech but it makes for a lovely souvenir as does the match ticket. It's also worth noting that only one of the 20 pages contains any advertising which is rather unlike similar programmes on offer in England.
The featured game was effectively over as a contest early doors. Loko Vltavin took the lead after just 8 minutes through the Brazilian Costa Pablo Felipe Vieira, Three minutes later Loko had a second goal, this time it was an own goal by Vary's goalkeeper (Brankar in Czech) Jiri Chara. There was to be no further scoring until the final minute when captain Martin Uvira grabbed Loko's third. On a beautiful crisp autumn day, the match was a delight.
CRB Match No. 2343
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