The Czech national superleague, one of the strongest minifootball leagues in the world, is getting ready for the upcoming season. 8 teams, each assembled from the best players in each region. In Czech republic there are 8 levels of leagues with a qualification – relegation system, and above that there is the Superleague which is like the all stars from all over the country.
In order to understand how local leagues can produce a World Champion team we spoke with Czech Superlueage chief, Petr Brejla. who shared with EMF news one of the secret of success of Czech minifootball: “The Super league currently has 283 active players, and a maximum of fifteen to eighteen players can be called to the national team. So the coaches have a good overview of the players, their quality and their current shape. Every success of the national team will always be reflected in Super League and vice versa.”
Brejla explains how the high level of the league helps the national team: “When players from the Super league enter the national teams they are more experienced, more sophisticated, accustomed to tough games, pressure and, above all, to television cameras and a certain media interest.”
However since minifootball is still an amateur sport, Brejla sees how sometimes its not easy to combine professional standards with amateur players which makes the head of the league’s job more challenging. “We have to be aware that we are an amateur sport that uses elements of professionalism, such as a nationwide competition. It is not possible for Olomouc, for example, to play in Most on Monday at five o’clock in the afternoon, when only the trip takes five hours.”
Despite the challenges, the Czech Superleague will kick off on April 9th, and this year 6 matches will be live on CT Sport, Czech national sport TV channel. After winning the World Cup in Tunisia, in October, the Czech team still miss the European trophy, and they hope that a strong Superleague season will help the national team bring home the EMF EURO trophy from Kiev in August.
Czech Superleague Cheif, Peter Brejla
For more info about the Czech Superleague: http://superliga.cz/