Why they call a Czech club Kangaroos

30 Sep 2010 | 00:00

European coaches Vitezslav Lavicka and Franz Straka are welcome additions to the A-League scene because they have brought in some new ideas that enriched the competition.

The two mentors who crossed paths on Wednesday night when Sydney FC met North Queensland Fury have also strengthened a rather tenuous link between Australian and Czech football.

Australia has had very little contact with the Czech Republic on the football field.

The two countries have met nine times in friendlies at senior level but eight of the Socceroos’ clashes were against the old Czechoslovakia.

But a lasting bond was forged way back in the mid-1920s.

This unlikely connection led to two Prague clubs choosing a kangaroo as their official emblem and mascot.

It’s an interesting story.


In May 1927, Prague club AFK Vrsovice undertook a long tour of Australia, playing 19 matches in several states, winning 13 and drawing three.

Included in the two-month tour were three ‘international matches’ against the full Australian representative team.

The Czechs won 6-4 in Sydney and drew 5-5 in Brisbane and 4-4 in Sydney.

The Czech side drew many fans to its games and the tour became a huge success but only after promoters insisted the touring team be called ‘Bohemians’.

At the end of the tour the club was presented with two live kangaroos, which it took home to Prague and donated to the city zoo.

The visitors to Australia were so taken by the warmth of their hosts that they made the temporary ‘Bohemians’ nickname their official name and even adopted the kangaroo as the club emblem and mascot.

Bohemians, which is known as Klokani (Kangaroos), was always a small club and could never compete on a level playing field with the power and influence of cross-town rivals Sparta Praha and Slavia Praha.

Bohemians’ claim to fame is two pieces of silverware from a Czechoslovak Cup win in 1982 and a league championship in 1983, the year it also reached the semi-finals of the old UEFA Cup, when it lost to Anderlecht of Belgium.

Bohemians, which played in a small suburban ground, fell on hard times after that golden period and in 2005 it was relegated to the third division because of financial insolvency - but is now back in the top flight.


Another Prague club, FC Strizkov Praha, took advantage of Bohemians’ plight and acquired its brand, called itself Bohemians Praha and started playing in the third division.

It even picked a kangaroo as its official emblem.

This did not go down well with fans of the old Bohemians and a few diehards revived the club and gave it the name of Bohemians 1905, which is the year it originally was formed.

It did not take long for both Bohemians clubs to work their way up to the first division and in 2009 the two teams met each other in a ‘kangaroo derby’ that ended 0-0.

Howzat for a bit of Aussie culture in central Europe! All they needed was a few Fosters and steak sandwiches!

Bohemians 1905, which shares Slavia’s ground and whose chairman is Czech 1970s legend Antonin Panenka, is still in the first division but Bohemians Praha is back in the third tier.

So it might be a while before the two ‘Aussie’ teams shape up for another derby.

But the legacy of that Australian tour in distant 1927 will live on.

So in a way, 83 years down the track, by their presence in the A-League Lavicka and Straka are paying off a long-standing Czech debt to Australia.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/philip-micallef/blog/1024819/Why-they-call-a-Czech-club-Kangaroos

Didn't someone on here write a blog about this a few months back???

Bohemian Rhapsody

In the early 1980s, Bohemians was one of the form teams of communist Czechoslovakia. Collecting the 1982/83 Czechoslovak First League title and appearing in the semi finals of the UEFA Cup, they were a top side prior to AC Sparta Prague’s three decade long domination of the league. The club was originally established in 1905, but it wasn’t until 1927 that ‘Bohemka’ were to gain their rather unique sporting identity.

You see, around this time Australian soccer’s governing body wanted a high-class European team to tour the country and inspire the populace to play this very British of games. The mother country was the obvious choice, but England soon rejected their overtures, seeing no point in coming to such a footballing backwater - colony or no colony. Other big-name European sides were also approached, but saw no value in Australia either. Then some bright spark had the idea of taking this Prague-based club, relabelling them ‘Czechoslovakia’, and bringing them out to the other side of the world. After all, being a backwater, the Australian public wouldn’t know the difference...

To the Australian Soccer Association’s credit, the tour was actually highly successful. Good crowds came to see the teams play, the football was of a high standard, and Bohemians may as well have been the Czech national team given the number of gifted players they boasted. Australia loved Bohemians, and what’s more, Bohemians loved Australia. When the players finally ended their tour, it is said that many wanted to stay behind rather than return to their homeland.

As a parting gift, the team was given two live kangaroos, which they ended up donating to the Prague Zoo. They evidently cast a fair spell on the team as, in a final nod towards the hospitality of their hosts, the club approved a change of logo to none other than the kangaroo, the enduring image of the Australian outback. Now, I’m not one to judge here, but you didn’t see the ‘Hong Kong Chinese’ team which toured around the same time do the same thing.

But the Bohemians story doesn’t end there - oh no. In 2005, the club unfortunately went bankrupt, and was relegated to the third tier of football in the Czech Republic. In an act of gross commercialism, another club called FC Strižkov Praha 9 (fantastic name, really) saw a marketing opportunity and bought up the now-bankrupt Bohemians brand. Now calling themselves FC Bohemians Praha, this club kept the Kangaroo as a feature of top-level Czech football.

As you may imagine, ‘real’ Bohemians supporters were rather upset at this development, and in true football fan style they formed their own team, Bohemians 1905, to carry on the legacy of the original club. In a story deserving of its own hollywood film, last year 1905 finally managed to gain promotion back to the Gambrinus Liga; where they now face none other than FC Bohemians Praha, the ‘fake Bohemka’. This meant that Prague residents could now experience the rather insane concept of a ‘Kangaroo’ derby in the middle of their city, god knows how many miles away from Kangaroo country. In a delicious twist of poetic justice, the current Gambrinus Liga table shows that Bohemians 1905 are currently seven points clear of their copycat rivals, who occupy last place on the league table.