FK Viktoria Žižkov

FK Viktoria Žižkov is a Czech professional football club from the district of Žižkov in Prague. The club competes in the Czech National Football League, the second tier of football in the country. It won the Czechoslovak First League title in the 1927–28 season, and has also won two editions of the Czech Cup.

History

Early years

The team was founded by students in 1903 in the town of Žižkov (since 1922 part of Prague). At that time the students chose red and white striped shirts as their colours in honour of the colours of the Flag of Bohemia. Those same colours remain today. Viktoria's main successes fall into the period between the world wars — until 1948 it was the third most successful Czechoslovak club, winning the Czechoslovak championship in 1928 and finishing as runners-up in 1929. It won the Czechoslovak Cup in 1913, 1914, 1916, 1921, 1929, 1933, and 1940, and came runners-up in 1919 and 1920. It successes gained international recognition, even as a result, giving the name to the Polish club Victoria Jaworzno.

Post-war era

After World War II and the beginning of communism in 1948 the club descended to the lower leagues and they didn't rejoin the top flight until 1993. In the 1950s the club underwent several name changes as a result of which the club briefly lost its historic name ''Viktoria''; ''Sokol'' (1950), ''Sokol ČSAD'' (1951) and after a merger with Avia Čakovice the club was called ''TJ Slavoj Žižkov'', a name which lasted until 1965 when the historic name was restored.

1990s and 2000s

In 1993 Viktoria was promoted again to the highest league as a result of the Velvet Divorce and the Slovak clubs walking away to form their own league. Viktoria was very successful between 1993 and 2003, competing in four European cups. Žižkov has won the national knock-out cup for the eighth time in 1994 and finished as runners-up in 1995.

In 2001 Viktoria Žižkov won their ninth cup in history followed by knocking Scottish team Rangers out of the UEFA Cup in 2002, going through on the away goals rule after extra time at Ibrox. The team finished third in the league on two more occasions, in 2002 and 2003.

In 2004, after a string of poor results and a corruption scandal, the team was relegated again to the second league. In 2007 the team successfully made it back to the Czech First League, finishing the season as runaway champions of the 2nd league. After finishing mid-table in their first season back in the top flight, in 2009 they were relegated back to the second league after struggling all season, with one of the only highlights being Petr Švancara winning Czech Television's goal of 2008 (gol roku), with his stunning individual effort to open the scoring in Žižkov's 4–2 home victory against FK Bohemians Prague (Střížkov).

Žižkov bounced back to the top flight after finishing runners-up to FK Dukla Prague in 2011. Their season started with just seven points from the opening 14 rounds of the 2011–12 Czech First League, resulting in the club parting company with coach Martin Pulpit on 23 November. In January, with the club bottom of the league, it was revealed that only ten players from the first half of the season were still at the club. A particular loss was goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík moving to Sparta Prague. Žižkov finished bottom of the league with 19 points, and were relegated to the second division.

Historical names

* 1903 – Sportovní kroužek Viktoria Žižkov
* 1904 – SK Viktoria Žižkov
* 1950 – Sokol Viktoria Žižkov
* 1951 – Sokol ČSAD Žižkov
* 1952 – TJ Slavoj Žižkov (after merger with Avia Čakovice)
* 1965 – TJ Viktoria Žižkov
* 1973 – TJ Viktoria Žižkov Strojimport
* 1982 – TJ Viktoria Žižkov PSO
* 1992 – FK Viktoria Žižkov

Stadium

The club's original stadium was located in the Ohrada region, but this was closed down in 1928. Viktoria's present ground, FK Viktoria Stadion, was opened in 1952 and is situated on Seifertova třída, just a short walk (one tram stop) from Prague's main railway station. It has a capacity of 5,037. In 2007 the club opened a fanshop at the ground for the sale of club mementos.

Players

Current squad

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Out on loan

Notable former players

In popular culture

The very popular 1931 Czech comedy film '' Muži v offsidu'' is centered largely on the culture and fans of Viktoria Žižkov and features unique footage of several matches from that time. The book, on which the film is based, was written by Karel Poláček.

The Czech film actor Vlasta Burian played as the regular goalkeeper for Žižkov around 1916 before setting out on his acting career. A plaque in FK Viktoria Stadion now commemorates his appearances for the club.

Managers

* Vladimír Táborský (1993)
* Jiří Kotrba (1993–95)
* František Kopač (1995–96)
* Jaroslav Hřebík (1996)
* Július Bielik (1997–98)
* Jiří Štol (1998–99)
* Petr Uličný (1999)
* Zdeněk Ščasný (1999–02)
* Vítězslav Lavička (July 2002 – Sept 2003)
* Günter Bittengel (Nov 2003 – June 2004)
* Stanislav Levý (July 2004 – Dec 2004)
* František Kopač (2005)
* Pavel Malura (2005–06)
* Stanislav Griga (July 2007 – Sept 2008)
* Josef Csaplár (Sept 2008 – Nov 2008)
* Zdeněk Ščasný (Nov 2008 – Dec 2010)
* Vlastimil Petržela (June 2009 – May 2010)
* Martin Pulpit (July 2010 – Nov 2011)
* Roman Nádvorník (Dec 2011 – Mar 2013)
* Giancarlo Favarin (Mar 2013 – June 2013)
* Jindřich Trpišovský (July 2013 – May 2015)
* Roman Veselý (July 2015 – Sept 2015)
* Zdeněk Hašek (Oct 2015 – Nov 2016)
* David Vavruška (Dec 2016 – Oct 2017)
* Bohuslav Pilný (Oct 2017 – May 2018)
* Petr Mikolanda (Jun 2018 – Oct 2018)
* Miloš Sazima (Oct 2018 – May 2019)
* Zdeněk Hašek (May 2019 – Nov 2020)
* David Vavruška (Nov 2020 – Dec 2020)
* David Oulehla (Dec 2020 – Oct 2021)
* Martin Pulpit (Oct 2021 – Apr 2022)
* Daniel Veselý (Apr 2022 – May 2022)
* Michal Šmarda (May 2022 – Feb 2023)
* Michal Horňák (Feb 2023 – Dec 2023)
* Marek Nikl (Jan 2024 – present)

History in domestic competitions

* Seasons spent at Level 1 of the football league system: 14
* Seasons spent at Level 2 of the football league system: 15
* Seasons spent at Level 3 of the football league system: 10
* Seasons spent at Level 4 of the football league system: 2

Czech Republic

;Notes

History in European competitions

UEFA Cup

Mitropa Cup

In 1928 Žižkov took part in the Mitropa Cup, reaching the semi-final stage, where they lost in a play off to SK Rapid Wien after the initial two-legs between the teams produced a tie. At the quarter-final stage Žižkov knocked out Građanski Zagreb (later to become Dinamo Zagreb) over two legs, winning the home tie 6–1.

Honours

* Czechoslovak First League
**Champions: 1927–28
* Czech Cup
**Champions: 1993–94, 2000–01
*Czech 2. Liga (second tier)
**Champions: 2006–07
* Bohemian Football League (third tier)
**Champions: 2022–23

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viktoria Zizkov

Football clubs in the Czech Republic
Zizkov, Viktoria
Association football clubs established in 1903
Zizkov, Viktoria
Zizkov, Viktoria
Football clubs in Czechoslovakia
Football clubs in Austria-Hungary
Žižkov
Czech National Football League clubs