The 2021–22 Czech First League, known as the FORTUNA:LIGA is the 29th season of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

's top-tier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for professional clubs since its establishment, in 1993.

SK Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in th ...

are the reigning champions. The season has started on 24 July 2021. The first half of the season will have 19 rounds, finishing on 19 December 2021, and the other half will commence on 5 February 2022. The season is expected to end 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 Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

, featuring it in all matches played. All matches will be played on weekdays, no Friday fixtures are expected.

Season

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

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 ČT Sport is Czech Republic, Czech national sports channel, operated by Česká televize. History ČT Sport was launched on 10 February 2006 at 'ČT4 Sport', to promote digital television, its main programmes include football (soccer), football, ...

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 Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

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 Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as an ...

, 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.

Relegation

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

defeated

Dukla Prague Dukla Prague ( cz, Dukla Praha) was a Czech football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in the 1966–67 season, reached the semi ...

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 Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava (river), Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a histori ...

became the first team to be relegated to FNL after a 1–1 draw at

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; german: Zlin) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 73,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice river. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the ...

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 FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

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

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Ahead of the season: During the season:

League table

Table progress

;Notes ''Italic'' denotes that teams have a game in hand

Results

Season statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

;Notes (H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Awards

Monthly awards

Annual awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czech First League, 2021-22 2021–22 in European association football leagues 1 2021-22