Sport | Topic Archive

One of the country's leading football referees, Dagmar Damkova, reached a career milestone last week when she officiated at the women's World Cup semi-final in China. Her presence at the game was also a landmark for Czech football: no Czech referee has gotten as far. I spoke to Mrs Damkova right after she came back from China and began by asking about her impressions from the tournament.

In Sports News: Sparta Prague leave it late to take all three points against Jablonec, while Slavia run riot in a 7:1 win over Zlin; the Czech women's basketball team bounce back after an embarrassing defeat by Germany to overcome Lithuania at the European Championships; Tomas Berdych suffers a surprise exit in the semi-finals at the Thailand Open; and the Czechs draw Belgium in the Davis Cup World Group.

In Sports News: Radek Stepanek plays through the pain barrier in a tie against Switzerland to help the Czech Republic maintain their place at the top table in tennis's Davis Cup; after their successful start in the Champions League, Slavia Prague are brought back to earth with a bang by Bohemians 1905 in the Czech first division; canoeist Stepanka Hilgertova takes bronze at the Slalom World Championships; and world champion Barbora Spotakova extends her own Czech record in the javelin.

"The Dream Continues" is how the Czech daily Sport titled Wednesday night's triumph, referring to football side Slavia's win in the team's first ever Champions League match. Slavia downed Steaua Bucharest 2:1 in the group stage game held at Prague's Evzen Rosicky stadium, earning their first three points.

In Sports News: Sparta football team captain Tomas Repka loses his famous temper in a 2:1 loss to Teplice; Neved's Juventus is edged 1:0 by Udine in the Serie A; Liberec win second-straight in Czech ice hockey; Pesek a disappointing 13th in 125 cc motorcycle racing in Portugal.

Even before the first whistle in Wednesday evening's football Euro qualifier between the Czech Republic and Ireland, the game was being described as autumn's big event. There was no question that the Czechs - who had been suffering from poor form and had come under heaps of criticism of late - needed to win against Ireland to keep them in qualifying contention. They succeeded: on the night the Czechs played their most inspired game in months, just edging their opponents.

Wednesday has been called "do or die" for the Czech national football squad if the team hopes to compete at Euro 2008 next year in Austria and Switzerland. To secure a tighter hold on the crucial second spot in Group D the Czechs would ideally need to win Wednesday night against visitors Ireland, but many pundits are sceptical that will happen.

In this week's Sports News: the Czech National team beats San Marino 3:0 in the Euro 2008 qualification; O2 Extraliga in ice-hockey starts on Wednesday; Yvetta Hlavacova swam across the English Channel but was too slow to break the record and Marlene Ottey has made an appearance in the Czech athletics league.

Czech football has seen some great results in recent years. The Czech national team has been doing fairly well on the international scene and Slavia Prague made it into the prestigious Champions League this year. But all this could fade into the background if one issue is not addressed. In this week's Panorama, we look at the problem of racism at Czech football stadiums.

The Czech capital Prague on Tuesday launched its candidature for the 2016 Olympic Games, with a ceremony to sign its official bid. The city has never hosted such a huge sporting event and currently lacks the necessary stadia and other infrastructure. But Prague officials believe they do have a serious chance - if not in 2016, then four or even eight years later.