Czech First League

The highest football league competition in the Czech Republic is called the 1st Czech Football League, known as Fortuna:Liga for sponsorship reasons. The league has been played since 1993 and was preceded by the Football League of Czechoslovakia, which after the division of the federation gave rise to the separate Czech and Slovak league competition.

The original Football League of Czechoslovakia was played from 1925 to 1993. However, the origins of football in the former Czechoslovakia are even older, as this competition was preceded by the Bohemian and Moravian Championships, which were held irregularly. The competition was played between 1896 and 1924.

Clubs

There are 16 clubs in the top Czech football competition, with 34 clubs appearing in the competition during its existence. If we focus only on the period of the 1st Czech Football League, which has been played since the 1993/94 season, 5 teams have so far won the league title.

The most successful club is AC Sparta Prague, which has 12 titles in this modern history. The other big Prague club, SK Slavia Prague, is on the other hand the one that has finished 2nd most often behind Sparta. The same number of league titles is also held by FC Viktoria Plzeň, which had a successful period mainly in the second decade of this century. The fourth most successful team is FC Slovan Liberec with three titles and the league championship table is rounded off by FC Baník Ostrava with one title.

Competition format

There are two playing seasons, an autumn season and a spring season, separated by a winter break. All teams play each other in a two-match format, one home and one away. The regular season therefore means 30 games for each team.

Since the 2018/19 season, there is also a post-season. The teams that finish in the top 6 positions play each other for the league title and the European Cups, again in a one-round, one-all format. The twin teams in 7th and 10th place and 8th and 9th place then play each other in two rounds, with the winners of the duels then playing for Europa League qualification, where the winner will play the worst of the six-team group for the title.

On the other hand, the teams that finish in the last 6 positions from the bottom play each other for retention. The worst team is relegated to the 2nd league (National League and Fortuna:National League, respectively), while the second and third worst teams challenge the 2nd and 3rd placed teams from the 2nd league in the barrage.