Slezský FC Opava is a professional

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 ...

club based in

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 ...

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 ...

. The club plays in the Czech National Football League, the second of Czech football after being relegated from the Czech First League at the end of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season.

History

The club was in the Czech First League at the top tier of Czech football from 1995 to 2000, getting relegated in 2000 but returning to the top flight the following season in 2001. After another relegation they returned again in 2003 and had a two-year spell in the top division, but internal issues led to a slow decline of the club and relegation to the regional division. The club celebrated a return to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 2011, but after just two seasons, they were relegated back to the

Moravian–Silesian Football League The Moravian-Silesian Football League (MSFL) ( cs, Moravskoslezská fotbalová liga) is one of the third level football leagues in the Czech Republic (the other is the Bohemian Football League) headquartered in Olomouc. The league comprises teams ...

(MSFL) in 2013. The club won promotion back into the second level of football in their first season in the MSFL. They won the Czech National Football League in 2018, securing promotion to the top flight. However they were relegated to the National League again in 2021.

Historical names

* 1907–09 – ''Troppauer Fussballverein'' * 1909–39 – ''Deutscher Sportverein Troppau'' * 1939–45 – ''NS Turngemeinde Troppau'' * 1945–48 – ''SK Slezan Opava'' * 1948–50 – ''Sokol Slezan Opava'' * 1950–53 – ''ZSJ SPJP Opava'' * 1953–58 – ''TJ Baník Opava'' * 1958–90 – ''TJ Ostroj Opava'' * 1990–94 – ''FK Ostroj Opava'' * 1994–98 – ''FC Kaučuk Opava'' * Since 1998 – ''SFC Opava''

Fans and rivalries

The club has a group of fanatical fans called ''Opaváci'' who frequently produce tifos and displays, as well as travel to away games. They have a friendship with fellow

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

n team Śląsk Wrocław and have derby rivalries with FC Baník Ostrava and

FC Hlučín FC Hlučín is a Czech football club based in Hlučín. It currently plays in the Moravian–Silesian Football League, which is the third tier of Czech football. The club played in the Czech 2. Liga for three seasons between 2005 and 2008, and ret ...

, with the matches between them known as the Silesian Derby.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable former players

Player records in the Czech First League

Most appearances

Most goals

Most clean sheets

Managers

* Vlastimil Bělík (1945–?) * Jan Novák (late 1940s) * Václav Smetánka (late 1940s) * Karel Novák (1957) * Milan Pouba (1958 – April 1961) * Josef Černohorský (April 1961 – September 1961) * Milan Pouba (September 1961 – 1963), ''second term'' * Karel Čapek (1963–1964) * Milan Pouba (1964–1965) * Karel Čapek (1965 – September 1966) * Jan Balnar (September 1966 – 1967) * Milan Pouba (1967 – August 1968) * Karel Novák (September 1968 – 1970) * Anton Krásnohorský (1970) *

Evžen Hadamczik Evžen Hadamczik (28 October 1939 – 19 September 1984) was a Czech football manager and former player. He was responsible for the Golden Era of Baník Ostrava football club, winning the Czechoslovak First League in 1980 and 1981 with them. He ...

(1970–1978) * Karel Větrovec (1978) * Květoslav Stříž (1978) * Milan Pouba (1978–1979) * Petr Hudec (1979–1980) * Milan Pouba (1980–1981) * Alois Sommer (1981–1990) * Petr Žemlík (1990–1992) * Petr Ondrášek (1992) * Oldřich Sedláček (1992 – April 1993) * Alois Sommer (1993) * Jaroslav Pindor (1993) * Jaroslav Gürtler (1993–1994) * Petr Žemlík (1994–1997) * Jiří Nejedlý (1997–1998) * Petr Žemlík (1998) *

Jiří Bartl Jiří Bartl (born 22 October 1963) is a Czech former football player and currently a football manager. Having previously been manager of SFC Opava and assistant manager, Bartl took over as manager at Gambrinus liga side Teplice in January 200 ...

(1998–2000) *

Petr Uličný Petr Uličný (born 11 February 1950 in Uničov) is a former Czech football player and manager. Having previously managed Sigma Olomouc until 2006, guiding the club to finishes of third, fourth and ninth, Uličný returned in December 2011. ...

(2000) *

Bohuš Keler Bohuslav "Bohuš" Keler (born 8 September 1961 in Karviná) is a Czech football manager and former player who played during most of his career for FC Vítkovice. Club career Keler played in 113 Czechoslovak First League matches for FC Vítkovi ...

(2000–01) *

Miroslav Mentel Miroslav "Miro" Mentel (born 2 December 1962 in Šurany) is a former Slovak footballer, currently is coach of goalkeepers in Slovakia national football team and also FK Senica. Mentel played for FK Inter Bratislava, Dukla Banská Bystrica and ...

(2001–02) *

Karel Jarůšek Karel Jarůšek (born 2 December 1952) is a Czech Republic, Czech football (soccer), football manager and former player. As a player, Jarůšek played mostly for FC Zbrojovka Brno. In 1978, he won the Czechoslovak First League with Zbrojovka. Fr ...

(2002–03) *

Pavel Hapal Pavel Hapal (born 27 July 1969) is a Czech former football player and current manager of Baník Ostrava. Playing career Hapal's professional career began at SK Sigma Olomouc. After the club's successful season when they reached the quarter-fina ...

(2003–04) *

Vlastimil Palička Vlastimil Palička (born 23 July 1954) is a Czech football manager and former player. He managed FK Jablonec in the Czech First League between 2001 and 2003. He has also managed three other top-flight clubs in the Czech Republic and one in Slovak ...

(2004–05) *

Radoslav Látal Radoslav Látal (born 6 January 1970) is a Czech Republic, Czech football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. Látal is currently in charge of I liga side Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza. Club career At a club level, Látal began t ...

(2008–09) * Josef Mazura (2010–12) *

David Vavruška David Vavruška (born 14 September 1972) is a Czech football coach. His last job was as a head coach of Czech 2. Liga football club Viktoria Žižkov. He took over at the half way stage of the 2016–17 season with the club comfortably in a mid- ...

(2012–13) *

Jan Baránek Jan Baránek (born 1 July 1970) is a Czech former football player. He made more than 300 appearances in the top flight of Czechoslovak and later Czech football. He was captain at Opava. In 2007, he was manager of Jakubčovice Fotbal. His brot ...

(2013–16) *

Roman Skuhravý Roman Skuhravý (born 6 January 1975) is a Czech football manager and former player. He played in the Czech First League as a defender for Jablonec, Baník Ostrava ''Baník'' is a Slovak word meaning "miner". Since the 1950s it has been part o ...

(2016–2018) *

Ivan Kopecký Ivan Kopecký (born 29 January 1946) is a Czech Republic, Czech association football, football manager and former player. As a player, Kopecký played five seasons in the Czechoslovak First League for SK Slavia Prague, Slavia Prague and one sea ...

(2018–2019) *

Josef Dvorník Josef Dvorník (born 23 April 1978 in Přílepy) is a former Czech football player. He played most of his career in Gambrinus liga teams. Honours With Baník Ostrava: * Gambrinus liga: 2003/04 * Czech Cup The Czech Cup ( cs, Pohár FAČR), ...

(2019) *

Jiří Balcárek Jiří Balcárek (born 29 April 1973) is a Czech football manager and former player. He played for Olomouc in the Czech First League and German side Union Berlin at club level and made two appearances for the Czech Republic national team. Manag ...

(2019–2020) *

Radoslav Kováč Radoslav Kováč (; born 27 November 1979) is a Czech football manager and former player. Kováč played both in midfield and in defence for Sigma Olomouc, Sparta Prague, Spartak Moscow, West Ham United, FC Basel and Slovan Liberec. At interna ...

(2020–2021) * Roman West (2021–2022) *

Peter Hlinka Peter Hlinka (born 5 December 1978 in Prešov) is a retired Slovak football midfielder and currently the manager of SFC Opava Slezský FC Opava is a professional football club based in Opava, Czech Republic. The club plays in the Czech Natio ...

(2023–present)

Honours

Czech 2. liga The Czech National Football League ( cs, Fotbalová národní liga, ''FNL''), currently known as Fortuna národní liga due to sponsorship reasons, is the second level professional association football league in the Czech Republic. Before 2013 it ...

(second tier) ** Runner-up 1994–95, 2000–01, 2002–03 *

(third tier) ** Champions 2010–11, 2013–14 *Krajský přebor Moravskoslezského kraje (fifth tier) ** Champions 2005–06 * Czech Cup: ** Runner-up 2016–17

Club records

Czech First League records

*Best position: 6th ( 1995–96) *Worst position: 18th (

) *Biggest home win: Opava 5–0

Příbram Příbram (; german: Freiberg in Böhmen, ''Przibram'', or ''Pribram'', in 1939–1945 ''Pibrans'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is well known for its mining history, and more ...

( 2018–19) *Biggest away win: Slovácko 0–2 Opava ( 2018–19) *Biggest home defeat: Opava 0–6 Slavia Prague (

) *Biggest away defeat: Jablonec 5–0 Opava ( 2001–02),

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive ind ...

6–1 Opava ( 2018–19)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Opava Football clubs in the Czech Republic Association football clubs established in 1907 Czech First League clubs 1907 establishments in Austria-Hungary