Courtesy: UEFA.com

Jistebník outgrow their origins

Monday, 13 November 2006

by Ladislav Josef

from Prague

With the Elite round of the UEFA Futsal Cup to take place from 4 December, uefa.com will over the coming four weeks take a closer look at each of the 16 sides involved. Today, we look at CC LKW Jistebník, the Czech side with a tough task in Group A against holders Boomerang Interviú, Italian hosts Arzignano Grifo C/5 and MKN Split.

Perfect record
Jistebník certainly bring a fine record to the mini-tournament, having been twice Czech champions and in the top three on six other occasions. And they seem set to succeed again as they currently lead the table with eight wins from eight games. They were formed as an amateur side in 1992 in the small town of Bilovec, 20km from Ostrava. Now they regularly play in front of four-figure crowds.

'Ciga Caga'
The abbreviation CC stands for Ciga Caga, as chanted by fans during games. They had plenty of chance to air it from the off as Jistebník won their regional competition in their very first season and were promoted to the top flight in 1993. Soon established as leading contenders, they finally took the title in 2002 when they defeated Nejzbach Vysoké Mýto in the play-offs. But they had pedigree in coach Petr Hudìc, who led the Czechoslovakia football team to the 1990 UEFA European Under-16 Championship.

European debut
That earned a UEFA Futsal Cup debut, but they had the bad luck to draw Split and lost 4-1 meaning a subsequent 5-4 defeat of FCK De Hommel did not take them past the first qualifying round. Now they are back, with their latest success achieved under former international and one of the club's founding members, Radek Korený, who replaced the late Hudìc three years ago.

Czech internationals
They reclaimed the championship last season, with three of the strong Czech Republic squad in their lineup. Goalkeeper Petr Krayzel has been capped 102 times, forward Vít Blažej - the reigning Czech futsal player of this year - and playmaker Tomáš Sluka, who also plays for second division football club SFC Opava. Also in the squad is 33-year-old Michal Buèek, the Czech Republic league’s all-time leading scorer with 362 goals, though he is only used occasionally these days.

Sluka treble
Sluka got them off to a perfect start on home territory in the Main round with a hat-trick in the 3-2 win against FC Iberia 2003 Tbilisi. Jan Janovsky, Blažej and Sluka found the target in a 3-1 defeat of FK Nafta Mazeiklai, which proved enough to take them through despite the subsequent 3-0 loss to FC Dorozhnik Minsk.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com