2020–21 Czech First League

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Czech First League 2020–21
Season information
Dates	21 August 2020 - 29 May 2021
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Slavia Prague Viktoria Plzeň
Europa League
Season statistics
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, will be the 28th season of the Czech Republic's top-tier football for professional clubs since its establishment in 1993. Slavia Prague are the defending champions, having won their twentieth league title the previous season, their third in the last four years. The season was initially scheduled to start on 11 July but was delayed until 21 August as a consequence of the postponement of the previous season's conclusion due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The first half of the season will only have 15 rounds, finishing on 19 December, and the spring half will commence on 29 January 2021, the earliest such date in league history.

This season is set to be played with 18 clubs, each team will play in the round-robin format home and away and the bottom three teams will be relegated directly to the second league at the end of the season. It will be the third season to use VAR, featuring it in six to eight matches per match-week in the first half of the season. From January 2021, all nine matches should have VAR. As was the case at the end of the previous season, there will be limited attendance from the fans in the stadiums due to measures related to COVID-19 pandemic.

Summary

This season is the third to have betting agency Fortuna as the title sponsor. In February 2020 the sponsorship contract was extended by another two years and will expire in 2023–24. It also will be the third season with TV broadcasting rights held by O2 TV, showing all nine matches per match-week. Further, the national broadcaster ČT Sport will broadcast one match per round (fourth option) and newspaper iSport.cz holds rights for the highlights from all matches.

Ahead of the season, many experts predict that Slavia, Sparta, and Plzeň will battle for the championship.

Season events

On 29 July the League FA started an investigation related to last season's quarantine of SFC Opava for not respecting the COVID-19 pandemic precautions, which resulted in the early conclusion of the relegation group and no team being relegated. The League FA will meet to make a decision on the subject and may impose penalties.

On 4 August the management of FK Pardubice and Bohemians Prague agreed that Pardubice will play its home matches at Ďolíček stadium, as their current home stadium Pod Vinicí does not fulfil first league criteria.

On 5 August the league announced pairings for the 34 match weeks. The first match is due to take place on 21 August. In the same meeting, the association announced other following changes to the game. The champions will be declared in a case that pandemic would not allow completing all matches of the season. As soon as teams finish 50% of their matches and assuming no more matches will take place, the league final placings will be based on using an average of points per game system. In case that teams have not completed half of their matches, a champion can not be declared and teams can not advance to European cup competitions. The relegation process for the last three teams will be enforced even if the teams play less than 50% of the schedule. Each squad member, player, and the official must present a negative COVID testing certificate not older than three days ahead of each game.

Last season, when a player cumulated 4 yellow cards, he was banned for the next match. In the case of 8 yellows, the ban was next 2 matches, 12 yellows meant 3 matches, etc. Unlike last season, the ban after 4, 8 or 12 cards will always be one match.

On 10 August 2020 during the pre-season camp in Austria, one of Slavia Prague players were tested positively for COVID-19. The team was called off, returned to Prague, and was isolated in quarantine until 24 August. Herewith Slavia could not play the opening match of the season. A week later, on 17 August the league FA released updates to the COVID manual and Slavia was released from the quarantine.

Teams

Teams relegated from Czech First League

In the last season's format of the league, all teams played a round-robin home and away format of the league. After 30 matches the teams were divided into championship (top 6), play-off (7th - 10th), and relegation (bottom 6) groups. Points and goals in the relegation group were fully carried over from the regular season. The last team should have been relegated and the two teams positioned 14th and 15th should have played a playoff format with second league teams positioned second and third. The relegation group was scheduled to conclude on 7 July 2020 but as a result of three Karviná players tested positive for COVID-19, the final two rounds of matches were postponed to 23 and 26 July. On 23 July, the date of the first postponed round, one player from Opava tested positive and the team was placed into two weeks long isolation which led to the abandonment of the last two rounds.

On 24 July the league FA announced that due to time pressure, the relegation group would remain unfinished. As a consequence, no team can be relegated and the winner of the second league was promoted. To avoid playing the 2020–21 season with an odd number of teams, automatic promotion was granted to the second-placed team as well. The eliminations play-offs were cancelled and the number of participants for 2020–21 season increased from 16 to 18.

At the end of the regular season, the last position was occupied Příbram, with elimination playoff spots held by Karviná and Opava. The same order was recorded after playing three rounds of the relegation group.

Teams promoted to Czech First League

The second league was also impacted by COVID pandemic but fully finished after a delay. On 11 July 2020 in the penultimate round of the season FK Pardubice beat Vyšehrad 4–1 and secured automatic promotion for the first time in Czech football history. Pardubice were previously represented three times in the Czechoslovak First League, most recently in 1968.

Since the decision that all sixteen teams would remain in the top league and to prevent having an odd number of participants, the second place holder Brno was invited to join the top tier after two years absence. Third-placed team Dukla Prague remained in the second league without the right to play a playoff match.

Locations and stadiums

The home stadium of a newly promoted FK Pardubice is not certified by the league to host the First League matches. The club opted to play their home league matches at Bohemians' Ďolíček stadium.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bohemians 1905	Prague	Ďolíček	5,000
SK Dynamo České Budějovice	České Budějovice	Stadion Střelecký ostrov	6,681
FK Jablonec	Jablonec nad Nisou	Stadion Střelnice	6,108
MFK Karviná	Karviná	Městský stadion (Karviná)	4,833
FC Slovan Liberec	Liberec	Stadion u Nisy	9,900
FK Mladá Boleslav	Mladá Boleslav	Lokotrans Aréna	5,000
SK Sigma Olomouc	Olomouc	Andrův stadion	12,483
SFC Opava	Opava	Městský stadion (Opava)	7,758
FC Baník Ostrava	Ostrava	Městský stadion (Ostrava)	15,123
FC Viktoria Plzeň	Plzeň	Doosan Arena	11,700
1. FK Příbram	Příbram	Na Litavce	9,100
SK Slavia Prague	Prague	Sinobo Stadium	19,370
1. FC Slovácko	Uherské Hradiště	Městský fotbalový stadion Miroslava Valenty	8,000
AC Sparta Prague	Prague	Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena	18,944
FK Teplice	Teplice	Na Stínadlech	18,221
FC Fastav Zlín	Zlín	Letná Stadion	5,783
FK Pardubice	Pardubice	Ďolíček	5,000
Zbrojovka Brno	Brno	Srbská	10,200

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Manager Appointed	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Slavia Prague	Trpišovský, JindřichJindřich Trpišovský	02017-12-22-22 December 2017	Bořil, JanJan Bořil	Puma	Citic Group
Viktoria Plzeň	Guľa, AdriánAdrián Guľa	02019-12-18-18 December 2019	Limberský, DavidDavid Limberský	Puma	Doosan
Sparta Prague	Kotal, VáclavVáclav Kotal	02020-02-18-18 February 2020	Dočkal, BořekBořek Dočkal	Nike	Tipsport
Jablonec	Rada, PetrPetr Rada	02017-12-14-14 December 2017	Hübschman, TomášTomáš Hübschman	Capelli Sport	Telmo
Baník Ostrava	Kozel, LubošLuboš Kozel	02020-01-03-3 January 2020	Kozel, LubošLuboš Kozel	Puma	MW Dias
Slovan Liberec	Hoftych, PavelPavel Hoftych	02019-06-14-14 June 2019	Mikula, JanJan Mikula	Nike	Preciosa
Mladá Boleslav	Weber, JozefJozef Weber	02018-02-27-27 February 2018	Matějovský, MarekMarek Matějovský	Adidas	Škoda
Sigma Olomouc	Látal, RadoslavRadoslav Látal	02019-05-31-31 May 2019	Beneš, VitVit Beneš	Adidas	--none--
Fastav Zlín	Páník, BohumilBohumil Páník	02020-03-10-10 March 2020	Jiráček, PetrPetr Jiráček	Adidas	Lukrom
Teplice	Hejkal, StanislavStanislav Hejkal	02018-09-25-25 September 2018	Mareš, JakubJakub Mareš	Puma	AGC, Bílinská kyselka
Slovácko	Svědík, MartinMartin Svědík	02018-11-10-10 November 2018	Daníček, VlastimilVlastimil Daníček	Puma	Z-Group
Opava	Kováč, RadoslavRadoslav Kováč	02020-06-11-11 June 2020	Žídek, JanJan Žídek	Nike	Isotra
Bohemians 1905	Klusáček, LuděkLuděk Klusáček	02019-10-10-10 October 2019	Jindřišek, JosefJosef Jindřišek	Adidas	Balshop.cz
Příbram	Horváth, PavelPavel Horváth	02020-03-11-11 March 2020	TBD	Nike	--none--
Karviná	Jarábek, JurajJuraj Jarábek	02019-11-14-14 November 2019	Janečka, MarekMarek Janečka	Adidas	ROKD
České Budějovice	Horejš, DavidDavid Horejš	02015-10-12-12 October 2015	Kladrubský, JiříJiří Kladrubský	Adidas	Autodraft
FK Pardubice	Krejčí, JiříJiří Krejčí	02013-05-30-30 May 2013	Jan Jeřábek	Lotto	Strabag
Zbrojovka Brno	Machálek, MiloslavMiloslav Machálek	02019-10-07-7 October 2019	Dreksa, PavelPavel Dreksa	Nike	Wedos

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Slavia Prague (C)	34	26	8	0	85	20	+65	86	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Sparta Prague	34	23	5	6	82	43	+39	74	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	Jablonec	34	21	6	7	59	33	+26	69	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
4	Slovácko	34	19	6	9	58	33	+25	63	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
5	Viktoria Plzeň	34	17	7	10	60	45	+15	58
6	Slovan Liberec	34	14	10	10	44	32	+12	52
7	FK Pardubice	34	15	7	12	41	42	−1	52
8	Baník Ostrava	34	13	10	11	48	38	+10	49
9	Sigma Olomouc	34	11	12	11	40	40	0	45
10	Bohemians 1905	34	10	13	11	40	37	+3	43
11	Mladá Boleslav	34	10	9	15	49	54	−5	39
12	Karviná	34	9	12	13	37	49	−12	39
13	České Budějovice	34	9	11	14	33	47	−14	38
14	Fastav Zlín	34	8	8	18	30	50	−20	32
15	Teplice	34	7	9	18	34	66	−32	30
16	FC Zbrojovka Brno (R)	34	5	11	18	33	57	−24	26	Relegation to the FNL
17	Příbram (R)	34	5	10	19	26	65	−39	25
18	Opava (R)	34	3	8	23	23	71	−48	17

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Fair-play ranking; 8) Draw.
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated

See also

• 2020–21 Czech Cup
• 2020–21 Czech National Football League

External links

• Official website (Czech)

2020–21 in Czech football
Domestic leagues
Czech First League · Czech National Football League
Domestic cups
Czech Cup · Czechoslovak Supercup
European competitions
Champions League (Final) · Europa League (Final)
2019–20                                                        2021–22