Football fan culture in the Czech Republic

Development, problems, causes

Abstract

This brief contribution focuses on a description of several aspects related to Czech football, Czech fans and Czech football hooligans. In the first chapter, the history of football and football fandom in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic) is described. In the subsequent text, football hooliganism, its origin in the 1980s and its development is analysed. In the text (Table no. 1), all relevant hooligan gangs are described as well as ultra groups (from the 1990s to the present). At the same time, some clashes between individual hooligan groups are noted. The next section concentrates on a description of football violence and the political arena (including a description of the effort by some members of parliament to change the criminal code). The last chapter is concerned with fans of the Czech national football team, their typical characteristics and displays. The final aspect of this paper is corruption in Czech football. The entire text is conceived as an introductory look into this problem.