2021–22 Czech First League

Czech First League
2021–22
	Czech First League; 2021–22
Season information
Dates	24 July 2021–14 May 2022
Winners	Viktoria Plzeň
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Viktoria Plzeň
Europa League	Slovácko
Europa Conference League	Slavia Prague; Sparta Prague
Season statistics
Matches played	276
Goals scored	763
Top goalscorer	Jean-David Beauguel (19)
Biggest home win	Plzeň 6–0 Bohemians 1905; 27 November 2021
Biggest away win	Liberec 0–5 Sparta; 31 July 2021
Highest scoring	Mladá Boleslav 3–5 Slovácko; 26 September 2021
← 2020–21	2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Czech First League, known as the FORTUNA:LIGA was the 29th season of the Czech Republic's top-tier football for professional clubs since its establishment, in 1993. SK Slavia Prague are the reigning champions. The season started on 24 July 2021. The first half of the season had 19 rounds, finishing on 19 December 2021, and the other half commenced on 5 February 2022. The season ended on 14 May 2022 with two extra play-out fixtures on 19 and 22 May 2022.

The season format was changed back to be played with 16 clubs, each team will play in the league format home and away matches. The lowest-ranked team will be relegated directly to the second league, the two teams positioned 14th and 15th will play a play-out with two teams from the second league positioned 2nd and 3rd in a home and away format. This will be the fourth season to use VAR, featuring it in all matches played. All matches will be played on weekdays, no Friday fixtures are expected.

Season summary[]

This season is the fourth season sponsored by the betting agency Fortuna with a contract valid until 2024. It is also the fourth season with TV broadcasting rights held by O2 TV, which shows all eight matches per week. This is the first season, that the national broadcaster ČT Sport possesses no right to broadcast any of the fixtures. The newspaper iSport.cz holds rights for the highlights from all matches. The 2021–22 season began on Saturday 24 July, just thirteen days after the final match of the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship. With most of the national team players still released for vacations, Slavia, Sparta and Viktoria started with incomplete A-team squads.

Many predicted Slavia's domination for the fourth season running, Viktoria and Sparta were considered as the candidates for a race for the title. After ten match-weeks the trio recorded one loss each, Viktoria in 6th round at Hradec Králové, Sparta in 7th round in Plzeň and Slavia in round 10 in the Prague S-derby at Letná on 3 October 2021. Sparta ended the longest non-winning streak of derby matches after five and half years at 14 matches. It was also an interruption of Slavia's record unbeaten streak of 54 matches in the first league. Three weeks later Slavia defeated Plzeň and in the 15th match-week Slovácko sensationally defeated Sparta 4–0, which escalated them to 2nd place behind Slavia. Unfortunately, Slovácko did not confirm the point tally in the following matches and positioned fourth at the winter break behind the big trio.

Teams[]

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)[]

A total of sixteen teams contest the league, including fifteen sides from the 2020–21 season and the winner of last season's second league.

Team promoted to Czech First League

Due to a reduction from 18 to 16 teams, only the winner of the FNL advanced to the first league. On 8 May 2021 Hradec Králové defeated Dukla Prague 2–1 and secured the promotion with three matches remaining. Hradec Králové will participate in the top tier after four years of absence.

Teams relegated from Czech First League

The three lowest positioned teams from the last season were relegated to the Fortuna National League.

On 8 May 2021, Opava became the first team to be relegated to FNL after a 1–1 draw at Zlín with three games remaining, ending their three-year stay in the top flight.

On 16 May 2021, Zbrojovka became the second team to be relegated to FNL after a 1–1 draw at Slovan Liberec with two games remaining, ending their one-year stay in the top flight.

On 23 May 2021, Příbram's relegation was confirmed following a 0–1 defeat at home against Pardubice with one game remaining, ending their First League tenure after three years.

Locations and stadiums[]

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bohemians Praha 1905	Prague	Ďolíček	5,000
SK Dynamo České Budějovice	České Budějovice	Stadion Střelecký ostrov	6,681
FC Hradec Králové	Hradec Králové	Lokotrans Aréna	5,000
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
FC Baník Ostrava	Ostrava	Městský stadion (Ostrava)	15,123
FC Viktoria Plzeň	Plzeň	Doosan Arena	11,700
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

Personnel and kits[]

Team	Head coach	Head coach appointed	Shirt manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Bohemians 1905	Jaroslav Veselý	02022-03-21-21 March 2022	Adidas	BALSHOP.cz
České Budějovice	David Horejš		Adidas	Budějovický Budvar
Hradec Králové	Miroslav Koubek	02021-05-21-21 May 2021	Jako	Město Hradec Králové
Jablonec	Petr Rada		Capelli Sport	MOL Gitschberg Jochtal
Karviná	Bohumil Páník	7 October 2021	Adidas	OKD
Liberec	Luboš Kozel	02021-08-29-29 August 2021	Nike	AAA Auto
Mladá Boleslav	Pavel Hoftych	02022-02-23-23 February 2022	Adidas	Škoda Auto
Olomouc	Václav Jílek	02021-05-31-31 May 2021	Adidas	Tipsport Sigma
Ostrava	Ondřej Smetana		Jako	MW-Dias Město Ostrava
Plzeň	Michal Bílek		Macron	Doosan
Slavia Prague	Jindřich Trpišovský	02017-12-22-22 December 2017	Puma	eToro
Slovácko	Martin Svědík		Puma	Z-Group
Sparta Prague	Pavel Vrba		Adidas	Tipsport (Local) T-Mobile (Europe)
Teplice	Jiří Jarošík	02021-09-28-28 September 2021	Puma	AGC Bílinská kyselka
Zlín	Jan Jelínek		Adidas	Climax Sunscreens
Pardubice	Jaroslav Novotný Jiří Krejčí		Lotto	ČPP Servis

Managerial changes[]

Ahead of the season:

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Contract valid until
Hradec Králové	Frťala, ZdenkoZdenko Frťala	Resigned	02021-05-09-9 May 2021	Koubek, MiroslavMiroslav Koubek	02021-05-21-21 May 2021	Undisclosed
Sigma	Látal, RadoslavRadoslav Látal	End of contract	02021-05-03-3 May 2021	Jílek, VáclavVáclav Jílek	02021-05-31-31 May 2021	Summer 2023

During the season:

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Match-week	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Contract valid until
Liberec	Hoftych, PavelPavel Hoftych	Mutual consent	02021-08-26-26 August 2021	5	16	Kozel, LubošLuboš Kozel	02021-08-29-29 August 2021	Undisclosed
Teplice	Kučera, RadimRadim Kučera	Sacked	02021-09-26-26 September 2021	9	15	Jarošík, JiříJiří Jarošík	02021-09-28-28 September 2021	Summer 2024
Karviná	Weber, JozefJozef Weber	Sacked	02021-10-06-6 October 2021	10	16	Páník, BohumilBohumil Páník	02021-10-07-7 October 2021	Undisclosed
Mladá Boleslav	Jarolím, KarelKarel Jarolím	Sacked	02022-02-23-23 February 2022	22	6	Hoftych, PavelPavel Hoftych	02022-02-23-23 February 2022	Undisclosed
Bohemians	Luděk Klusáček	Mutual consent	02022-02-23-23 February 2022	26	13	Jaroslav Veselý	02022-03-21-21 March 2022	End-of-season

Regular season[]

League table[]


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Slavia Prague (C)	30	23	4	3	71	19	+52	73	Qualification for the championship group
2	Viktoria Plzeň	30	22	6	2	53	19	+34	72
3	Sparta Prague	30	20	6	4	65	32	+33	66
4	Slovácko	30	18	5	7	50	30	+20	59
5	Template:Fb team Baník Ostrava	30	14	9	7	54	39	+15	51
6	Hradec Králové	30	9	13	8	38	40	−2	40
7	Template:Fb team Mladá Boleslav	30	11	5	14	45	48	−3	38	Qualification for the play-off
8	Slovan Liberec	30	10	7	13	29	38	−9	37
9	Template:Fb team Sigma Olomouc	30	9	10	11	39	37	+2	37
10	Template:Fb team České Budějovice	30	9	9	12	40	46	−6	36
11	Template:Fb team Fastav Zlín	30	8	6	16	36	53	−17	30	Qualification for the relegation group
12	Teplice (O)	30	8	3	19	29	49	−20	27
13	Jablonec	30	4	14	12	22	45	−23	26
14	Bohemians 1905 (O)	30	6	8	16	34	56	−22	26
15	Template:Fb team Pardubice	30	5	9	16	35	67	−32	24
16	Karviná (R)	30	3	8	19	30	52	−22	17

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Results[]

Home \ Away	SLA	PLZ	SPA	SLO	OST	HKR	MLA	LIB	OLO	CBU	ZLN	TEP	JAB	BOH	PCE	KAR
Slavia Prague	—	2–0	2–0	2–1	4–0	4–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	3–0	5–0	1–0	4–0	0–1
Viktoria Plzeň	1–1	—	3–2	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	5–0	6–0	4–0	2–0
Sparta Prague	1–0	2–2	—	3–1	2–1	4–0	1–0	2–1	3–2	1–0	2–0	4–2	1–1	5–1	3–1	2–0
Slovácko	0–1	1–2	4–0	—	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	3–0	3–2	2–1	1–0	2–1	3–1
Baník Ostrava	3–3	2–2	2–2	1–2	—	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	4–1	5–1	2–4	1–0	4–1	3–1	1–3
Hradec Králové	1–5	1–0	0–1	2–2	1–1	—	2–2	1–1	3–0	2–2	2–1	3–0	2–2	1–1	2–0	1–0
Mladá Boleslav	0–2	0–2	0–3	3–5	2–3	3–2	—	3–3	3–3	2–0	1–0	3–1	3–0	4–1	2–3	1–0
Slovan Liberec	1–0	0–1	0–5	0–1	0–2	1–0	2–1	—	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–1	4–1	2–1
Sigma Olomouc	0–1	1–1	2–0	0–3	1–1	2–2	2–1	1–0	—	3–3	1–1	0–0	4–0	0–0	3–2	2–0
České Budějovice	2–2	0–1	0–0	3–2	1–3	0–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	—	2–2	1–0	2–0	2–1	3–1	3–1
Fastav Zlín	0–1	1–2	2–5	1–0	2–2	2–3	1–2	2–0	1–4	2–0	—	3–0	0–0	1–3	4–1	2–1
Teplice	1–3	0–1	0–3	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	1–2	0–0	2–1	4–1	—	1–0	1–0	1–2	1–0
Jablonec	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–2	1–1	0–2	—	2–2	1–1	1–0
Bohemians 1905	1–5	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–1	2–2	0–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	4–2	1–2	—	1–2	3–0
Pardubice	0–5	0–1	2–4	0–0	0–3	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–5	3–3	0–0	2–0	1–1	3–0	—	2–2
Karviná	3–3	0–1	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–2	2–2	2–3	1–1	1–1	1–1	3–2	—

Source: Fortuna Liga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Championship group[]

Points and goals were carried over in full from the regular season.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	PLZ	SLA	SPA	SLO	OST	HKR
1	Viktoria Plzeň (C)	35	26	7	2	61	21	+40	85	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round	—	—	3–0	3–1	1–0	—
2	Slavia Prague	35	24	6	5	79	26	+53	78	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round	1–1	—	1–2	3–0	—	—
3	Sparta Prague	35	22	7	6	71	38	+33	73		—	—	—	1–2	3–1	1–1
4	Slovácko	35	21	5	9	57	37	+20	68	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round	—	—	—	—	3–1	3–0
5	Baník Ostrava	35	15	10	10	59	47	+12	55		—	1–1	—	—	—	3–1
6	Hradec Králové	35	10	14	11	44	50	−6	44		0–2	4–3	—	—	—	—

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

Play-off[]

Because only four teams advance to the European Cups from the Czech First League due to a lower national coefficient, the winner of the play-off will only receive a cash bonus and better position in 2022–23 Czech Cup.

First round				Second round



Sigma Olomouc	1	2	3

Slovan Liberec	0	0	0
				Sigma Olomouc	1	2	3

				Mladá Boleslav	2	2	4
České Budějovice	2	0	2

Mladá Boleslav	3	1	4

Relegation group[]

Points and goals were carried over in full from the regular season.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	PCE	ZLN	JAB	BOH	TEP	KAR
11	Pardubice	35	9	10	16	42	68	−26	37		—	1–1	—	—	—	2–0
12	Fastav Zlín	35	9	9	17	43	60	−17	36		—	—	1–1	1–4	3–0	—
13	Jablonec	35	6	16	13	27	48	−21	34		0–1	—	—	1–1	—	2–0
14	Bohemians 1905 (O)	35	8	10	17	45	61	−16	34	Qualification for the relegation play-off	0–1	—	—	—	—	4–0
15	Teplice (O)	35	8	5	22	33	59	−26	29	Qualification for the relegation play-off	0–2	—	0–1	2–2	—	—
16	Karviná (R)	35	3	10	22	33	63	−30	19	Relegation to the FNL	—	1–1	—	—	2–2	—

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1) Total points; 2) Points earned in regular season; 3) Head-to-head points (regular season); 4) Head-to-head goal difference (regular season); 5) Head-to-head goals scored (regular season); 5) Goal difference (all matches); 6) Goals scored (all matches); 7) Fair-play ranking; 8) Draw.
(O) Play-off winner; (R) Relegated

Season statistics[]

Top scorers[]

Updated at the end of the season.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jean-David Beauguel	Plzeň	19
2	Václav Jurečka	Slovácko	17
3	Ladislav Almási	Ostrava	16
4	Ondřej Lingr	Slavia Prague	14
5	Tomáš Čvančara	Jablonec / Sparta Prague	12
6	Ewerton	Mladá Boleslav	11
6	David Puškáč	Bohemians 1905	11
8	Ivan Schranz	Slavia Prague	10
8	David Douděra	Mladá Boleslav	10
9	Jan Kuchta	Slavia Prague	9
	Fortune Bassey	České Budějovice
	Jakub Rada	Hradec Králové
	Adam Hložek	Sparta Prague

Hat-tricks[]

Matchweek	Date	Player	For	Against	Result
2	02021-07-30-30 July 2021	Schranz, IvanIvan Schranz	Slavia	Teplice	3–1 (A)
9	02021-09-26-26 September 2021	Ewerton	Mladá Boleslav	Slovácko	3–5 (H)
18	02021-12-12-12 December 2021	Pulkrab, MatějMatěj Pulkrab	Sparta	Bohemians	5–1 (H)
32	02022-04-30-30 April 2022	Jurečka, VáclavVáclav Jurečka	Slovácko	Ostrava	3–1 (H)
35	02022-05-15-15 May 2022	Puškáč, DavidDavid Puškáč⁴	Bohemians 1905	Karviná	4–0 (H)

Notes

⁴ Player scored 4 goals
(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets[]