Prague and Czechoslovak football in
the Cold War Period
Stefan Zwicker
Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Presented
22 February 2013
At the FREE conference ‘European Football and Collective
Memory’, Stuttgart.
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
http://www.free-project.eu
Working paper in progress.
Please do not quote without
permission from the author.
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
Although the focus of the paper is on the presentation of Czechoslovak football in
the Cold War Period, the historical background especially concerning the interwar
period (for decades remembered as the ‘Golden Era’ of Prague and Czechoslovak
football until 1938 - more or less synonyms at that time) should be presented briefly:
The ‘Golden’ Interwar Period
In few European regions sport and gymnastics were of such political and social
importance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as in the then multiethnic
historical Bohemian lands and then after 1918 in Czechoslovakia, where they were
used as a means to show the struggle for national emancipation and represent parts
of the population as an ethnic-national collective. After 1948 sports, including
football in a prominent position was used as a means of propaganda for the 'modern'
socialist state.
As all around Central Europe football had become a mass attraction after WW I
the latest, ten thousands of people attended the grounds at important matches. But
football also mattered socially, in the media and the arts and even politically. Among
the leading Czech Prague sides Slavia was before 1918 regarded as a symbol of the
national movement, afterwards as the club of the state’s new elites (most prominent
member was latter Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš), whereas cross-town rival
Sparta was several years presided by the nationalist politician and newspaper
publisher Jiří Stříbrný, who thus tried to strengthen his political influence – a kind of
precursor of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. Concerning broadcasting football matches especially of the Mitropa Cup (which Prague sides managed to win three times)
Prague journalist (and Slavia functionary) Josef Laufer was one of the pioneers on
the continent. Football was also a popular topic in literature and film, in his novel
Muži v offsidu Ze života klubových přívrženců (‘Men Offside. On The Life of Club
Supporters’) Karel Poláček, about sixty years before Nick Hornby’s worldwide
bestseller Fever Pitch, wrote the first book on football fans in world literature,
describing in an extremely comical but never denouncing manner how the life of
several Prague citizens is dominated by the results of their favorite clubs. This novel
was soon turned in a very popular film. A vivid sports press -Czech as well as German
-was blooming.
Situation after World War II and during the Cold War Era
Things were very different after WW II: Although more or less intact concerning
the buildings (including the sporting facilities) Prague as a multi-ethnical city had
ceased to exist, the Jewish citizens, if they had not managed to escape, had been
murdered as victims of the holocaust, the German speaking minority was forced to
leave the country in 1945 and after. The traditional Czech football clubs, having been
left more or less ‘untouched’ by the Nazi occupants (as football had its special
function in the propaganda on 'normal' every-day-life of the 'Protectorate'), were
widely disbanded after the Communist seize of power in 1948.
Clubs’ names of course were also sites of memory. In the era of ‘Prague Spring’ in
the 1960s, the traditional clubs as Sparta, Slavia und Bohemians were allowed to
regain their traditional names. (This is a significant difference to the Germand
Democratic Republic, where they ‘invented traditions’ by founding new
‘Fußballklubs’ with different names)
2
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
After the 1968 invasion of Warsaw Pact troops they were plans to expel teams from
the invading counties from the European football cup competitions. In the era of
‘normalization’ Czechoslovak football gained great successes: Slovan Bratislava
winning the European Cup Winner’s Cup in 1969, the national squad winning the
European Championship 1976 (with Panenka´s famous penalty shoot!) and the gold
medal at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games.
Concerning the medialization of Czechoslovak football during the Cold War
one has to distinguish between the different eras. Also it must be said that there is no
special incident where football was directly connected with political affairs as it was
the case with ice hockey (constructed trial against members of the national squad in
the early 1950ies, riots in 1969, used to liquidate the last remains of the 'Prague
Spring’) or even gymnastics (Vera Časlavská at the Olympic Games 1968). When
football as the whole society was transformed in communist sense in the 1950s this
was accompanied by massive propaganda in the domestic press stressing that there
now was to be put an end to bourgeois habits and conditions also in sports. Campaign
against star player Bican led by Alexej Čepička, Minister of defense himself. Stalinism
lasted relativley long in Czechoslovakia, and the already mentioned re-adaption of the
traditional club Prague club names in the 1960ies was one of many little symbols that
this was going to end and the so called ‘Socialism with a human face’ was to be
attempted, an attempt that failed, as we know.
Dukla
While the traditional clubs were being disbanded, new clubs were founded, the
most ambitioned Army Club Dukla, presided by Communist president Klement
Gottwald´s son-in law, Alexej Čepička, Minister of defence. Dukla (the name stems
from a mountain pass in Eastern Slovakia where the first battle on former and then
again Czechoslovak soil took place in 1944) was for decades to be presented as the
prestige club of Czechoslovak football. They were sent to tour Northern and Southern
America and, also due to their success in the European Cup competitions had a good
standing around Europe, while in their home country there were quite despised,
according to the well-known fact, that Dukla as an army club, just could recruit any
talented player. Even hard-boiled communists, whether plain comrades or party
functionaries, often showed their disapproval to the ‘Red-and Yellows’.
Dukla thas counted relatively few fans. Although they were very successful, they
had a much smaller attendance than the traditional clubs, even after getting a new
stadium built in 1968 During matches Dukla players were often verbally attacked (as
‘oficiři’). To the extent that Josef Masopust (the European footballer of the year
1962), spoke in his autobiography about a match that was considered exceptional
because this did NOT happen.
A revealing attempt to raise popularity of Dukla can be found in Ota Pavel´s book
Dukla mezi mrakodrapy (‘Dukla between the skyscrapers’), a report about the 1962
tour to North America, for the so-called American Challenge Cup. Having won, as
guest team, the International Soccer League’s title in 1961, defeating Everton FC 7-2
and 2-0, they also beat the 1962 International Soccer League champion America FC
from Rio de Janeiro.
The book was a report in the tradition of E. E. Kisch and Julius Fučík, a very well
written public relations piece published in 1964 in the publishing house of the
3
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
Ministry of Defence, that combined two subjects of great popular interest: football
and America. Despite Dukla’s lack of popularity it sold very well and went into a
second edition the same year. The Ministry of Defence even awarded it a prize.
The book alternates portraits of the players with impressions from the journey and
the matches. The book was not outright anti-american but highlighted negative
aspects of the capitalist world: it was pointed out that the International Soccer
League was organised by a millionaire (and remained always connected to his name),
that matches took place in rented stadiums but that there were no training facilities
(Dukla had to train in the N.Y. Central Park).
The football players as depicted as ambassadors: during the national anthem,
Czech emigrants whistled and shouted during the anthem, but in the end after the 7th
goal there is only applause left, joined in by the Americans join.
The football department of Dukla was sold and disbanded in the 1990s but there
was a comeback of an FK Dukla – no longer connected to the army – during the last
years.
The medialization of the European Championship 1976 victory
Although the Czechoslovak national squad had been twice in the World Cup final
(in 1934 and 1962 respectively), winning the European Championship 1976 in
Yugoslavia against Western Germany is still regarded as their greatest success. This
final round of the European Championship is a special site of memory in the field of
sport. Not only was an absolute highlight with only four extremely tense and exciting
matches, but it also was the encounter of four teams representing states three of
which would cease to exist within the next twenty years.
It is important to stress that it really was a ‘Czechoslovak’ team, if not even more or
less a Slovak team, because eight of the eleven players entering the pitch were from
Slovak clubs and all of these eight but one – Koloman Gögh who was an ethnic
Hungarian – were ethnic Slovaks. At the end, during the dramatic penalty shoot-out,
there were still seven Slovaks on the pitch, F. Veselý of Slavia had come in as a
substitute. Key players of the team were Czech goalie Ivo Viktor, captain Anton
Ondruš and defender Karol Dobiaš (both Slovaks) and of course the one player who
shot the decisive penalty, Antonín Panenka, son of Prague, a Pražak through and
through. Strange enough, today’s Czech team is in Western media often announced
as the ‘successors’ of the 1976 ‘Golden Team’ (and even recognized as such by UEFA
and FIFA). Yet another proof that memorial culture is not always in accordance with
to historical ‘reality’.
Looking at the medialisation of the Belgrade triumph we can see two mainstream
manners of presenting the Czechoslovaks: Their outstanding way of playing, a team
collective organised by two outstanding coaches, Václav Ježek, an excellent motivator
and aesthete of football known also for writing poetry and Dr. Jozef Venglos, who was
an renown analyst and ‘scientist’ of football, and the individual skills, especially those
of Panenka. The team’s playing style was described as a variant, today one would say
an 'update', of the ‘total football’ created and played most impressively by the Dutch
team of the early 1970s. This means a very offensive way of play, where all players but
the goalkeeper are willing and able to switch roles, to attack and defend if necessary,
but the main aim is playing towards the opponent’s goal. It has its origins in the
‘Golden Team’ of Hungary of the 1950s and was developed and perfected in the Dutch
4
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
club team Ajax in the early seventies and the Oranje national squad in 1974. (Ježek
had been coaching Dutch team ADO Den Haag during this period.) In the semi-final
1976 the Czechoslovaks had beaten the Dutch on a rain-soaked pitch in Zagreb with
their own weapons on a 3-1 score after extra time. In the Belgrade final the
Czechoslovaks scored already in the first minutes of the match and the score of 2-1 at
halftime would have been even more in their favour had not been for German
goalkeeper Sepp Maier. The Germans managed to equalise only in the last minute of
the normal playing time (a goal by Hölzenbein).
Kicker wrote:
‘Czechoslovakia developed a new style and dimension of the term total
football, opened new possibilities, how, having physical and technical
qualities, to perform thoughtful improvisation, which will cause trouble for
any opponent.’
An Eastern German football year book stressed the term of progress which they
alleged as a key for success not only in football but also in (socialist) society:
‘The CSSR team (farther in the text announced as “the socialist neighbour
country to whom we are brotherly connected”) adapted the teachings of
modern football and thus they won in this final round of superlatives. A
superlative of today will be the norm of tomorrow, according to a law of
development, valid not only in football.’
The deciding shoot-out was delivered by Panenka, a slender offensive midfielder
with impressive technical skills and an impressive moustache, often characterized as
a ‘football poet’ (‘fotbalový basník’). After Uli Hoeness had catapulted his shot high
above the goal in the Belgrade sky, he crowned his excellent performance with a piece
of art which until today connects his name – across Europe – with this way of
shooting a penalty. He looped the ball in an extremely slow way right into the middle
of the goal while poor Sepp Maier (who easily would have caught the ball remaining
standing) was diving into the left corner.
France Football commented that
‘in a world of tough guys, merciless realistic football, terrorised by money
and brutality, this time a poet won.’
There weren’t any international star players, any Beckenbauer, Maier, Cruyff,
Neeskens, Dzajić within the Czechoslovak team as there were in the three other
squads of the final round. They were characterized as a ‘collective’, but not in the
rather negative sense often attributed to Eastern Block teams, who frequently were
accused of playing according to stereotyped patterns and without individual
inspiration. The Western media stressed the strong team performance and the great
coaching work of Ježek and Venglos, but also the individual abilities of Panenka,
Viktor or Ondruš. The political background – the fact that they came from a socialist
country – was mentioned only rearely (in the Eastern media, especially in GDR, more
often). It was however very much celebrated by the regime, as the 1980 gold medal at
the Olympic Games in Moscow.
This overview leads to a series of research questions:
Concerning the medialisation of Czechoslovak teams taking part in the
European football cup competitions in the 1970s: were they rather seen as
5
FREE – Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
‘socialist’ sides or as teams from a country with a long and successful history of
football? To what extent was football seen as a European cultural phenomena
crossing political borders between West and East?
The censored (auto-)biographies of football personalities published under
communism (e.g. Josef Laufer, Josef Bican, Josef Masopust) would also be
worth a closer look.
References
Král, Lubomír (2006): Historie německé kopané v Čechách [Geschichte des
deutschen Fußballs in Böhmen]. Praha: MJF.
Rduch, Robert; Zwicker, Stefan (2002), ‘Sport’, in: Andreas Lawaty, Hubert Orłowski
(ed.): Deutsche und Polen. Geschichte – Kultur – Politik, München p. 465-477
Zwicker Stefan (2006), ‘Josef „Pepi“ Bican (1913-2001) – ein Mittelstürmer und die
Abseitsfallen der Geschichte’, in: Dittmar Dahlmann, Anke Hilbrenner Britta
Lenz (Hrsg.):Überall ist der Ball rund. Geschichte und Gegenwart des Fußballs
in Ost- und Südosteuropa. Essen: Klartext, p. 119-140.
Zwicker, Stefan (2000), Fußball in der deutschen und tschechischen Gesellschaft,
Literatur und Publizistik. Ansätze zu einer vergleichenden Studie, in: Brücken.
Germanistisches Jahrbuch Tschechien und Slowakei 2000, p. 247-286;
Zwicker, Stefan (2001), ‘Männer, manchmal im Abseits. Fußball als Thema in der
tschechischen Literatur und seine gesellschaftliche Rolle in Vergangenheit und
Gegenwart’, in: Stifter Jahrbuch, NF 15 p. 95-112.
Zwicker, Stefan (2003), ‘Das nächste Spiel ist immer das schwerste.“ Fußball in der
deutschsprachigen Literatur von Egon Erwin Kisch bis Thomas Brussig , mit
besonderen Spielberichten zu Ror Wolf und Eckhard Henscheid’, in: Stifter
Jahrbuch NF 17, p. 186-211.
6