Jan Koller perfectly describes one of the meanings of the Planeo Cup. It brings together teams from the top of the Czech football pyramid with teams from small villages and towns, where football is primarily played with heart. The best scorer in the history of the national team himself grew up in the countryside after moving from Prague and also started playing football in Smetana Lhota in southern Bohemia. He knows the environment of village clubs and football at the highest level of the Champions League, the European Championship and the World Cup like no one else.
“The Planeo Cup is one of the largest student tournaments in Europe, where eighteen thousand children play sports. It is a tournament that includes the entire republic, from the smallest villages to the largest clubs. I’m looking forward to the overall atmosphere of the final tournaments, when Sparta, for example, will be playing with a smaller team. It will certainly be duels full of emotions,” Jan Koller does not hide his enthusiasm, who is curious how smaller clubs such as SK Nemošice, Žďár nad Sázavou, Slovan Velvary, Cidlina Nový Bydžov, Sokol Olšany u Prostějova, TJ Přeštice, Dukla Jižní Město will fare or Slavia Louňovice.
From the qualifications, in which more than 900 teams entered, the 24 best teams for the final tournaments crystallized in each category. In them, the best youth teams of the republic in Vysoké Mýt (U8), Lázní Bohdaneč (U9), Kroměříž (U10), Hlučín (U11), Uničov (U12) and Kuři (U13) will present themselves in four groups of six teams.
Photo: FAČR
Erich Brabec and Jan Koller at the draw of the Planeo Cup.
A beautiful story is being written in Lázně Bohdaneč, where, unlike other venues, the final tournament will take place for the very first time. Older years will catch on in their memory and will certainly remember that in the 1995/1996 season, the highest competition was played in a small town near Pardubice. At the Na Baště stadium in the famous nineties, famous players such as Luboš Kubík, Marek Heinz, Marek Kulič or the current coach of Slovácko, Martin Svědík, wore the Atlantik jersey. After almost thirty years, the “heavyweights” of Czech football such as Sparta, Baník or Sigma will return to Lázně Bohdaneč. And the reward for the boys from Bohdanč? Sparta was selected by the lottery for their basic group!
The Planeo Cup is also called the FAČR Youth Cup and is an inherent part of the projects of the domestic football association. “It is the largest club tournament in the Czech Republic and, with the participation of more than 900 clubs, a great breeding ground for future talents. Maybe in the future it will also appear here on the wall behind us, where there are photos of all the representatives, because it is a tournament that attracts a lot of new faces and talents every year,” FAČR technical director Erich Brabec said during the draw.
2024-01-19 19:43:59
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