FC BanÃÂk Ostrava is a professional football club from Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The club competes in the Czech First League, the top tier of Czech football.
Founded in 1922 as SK Slezská Ostrava, BanÃÂk has won the Czech First League once, as well as the Czechoslovak First League three times. Internationally the club won the Mitropa Cup in 1988 and the Mitropa Super Cup the following year.
The club was founded on 8 September 1922 as SK Slezská Ostrava, when 20 activists signed the establishment treaty in the U Dubu restaurant. The signatories were mostly poor coal miners from the Kamenec coal mining settlement in Ostrava. The founders were Karel Aniol, Arnoà ¡t Haberkiewicz, Petr Kà Âià ¾Ã¡k, Frantià ¡ek Mruzek and Jaroslav Horák.
SK Slezská Ostrava was a poor club; raising money for the functioning of the club was a common concern. They didn't have their own playing field and were forced to loan fields from wealthier clubs. The first field of its own was built in autumn of 1925 at Kamenec. It was however stony and did not meet requirements of the football officials. In 1934 club activists succeeded in renting the land at Stará stà Âelnice from regional wealthy industrialist Count Wilczek. During the summer of 1934 a new field was built there. Many workers volunteered to help with the construction for free. Workers and coal miners often came directly from shifts to build the field.
SK Slezská Ostrava began to compete with other teams in the league system in the spring of 1923. They started in the lowest division (III. tà ÂÃÂda à ¾upy) and were promoted to the higher division the same year. It took, however, some time for the club to reach the highest divisions of football in Czechoslovakia. In 1934 the club won promotion to the Moravian-Silesian Division, one of the highest leagues in the country. The promotion made SK Slezská Ostrava a popular team in the city and public interest was rising. The 1935 derby against Slovan Ostrava at Stará stà Âelnice was watched by 5,400 spectators.
The Czechoslovak First League was dominated by Prague teams at that time, which were advanced in all aspects. Promotion to the First League was, therefore, a big success for SK Slezská Ostrava. In 15 years the team advanced from being obscure minnows to the highest level of football in the country. The first league match at Stará stà Âelnice was played on 22 August 1937 against 1. ÃÂsà  K Bratislava. In the second match, the newcomer team faced famous Sparta Prague in Prague. Though Sparta's roster was full of national team players, BanÃÂk won 3âÂÂ2 and caused an immediate sensation. SK Slezská Ostrava survived three seasons in the First League before being relegated in 1940.
SK Slezská Ostrava played at a lower level until 1943, when they were again promoted to the First League. Promotion to the highest league sparked even stronger interest for football in local people. Later, famed opera singer Rudolf Asmus even sang a new anthem for the club. In the 1943âÂÂ44 season the home attendances of SK Slezská Ostrava reached the highest level so far. The match against Slavia Prague was attended by 33,000 people.
In 1952 the club adopted the name DSO BanÃÂk Ostrava. Since then the name went only through slight changes. In the 1954 season, BanÃÂk achieved their biggest league success so far, finishing second in the league behind Sparta. In 1959 BanÃÂk played for the last time at the old Stará stà Âelnice stadium. Stará stà Âelnice did not meet the requirements set by the football association. The pitch was not grassy, but covered with slag, which was also a reason to close down the stadium. Bazaly stadium was constructed in 1959 in Slezská Ostrava, and was opened on 19 April that year.
In the 1965âÂÂ66 season BanÃÂk were weakened by the generation change. They finished 13th in the league table and were relegated to the Second League. After winning the Second League in 1966âÂÂ67, BanÃÂk were promoted back to the top division.
In 1972âÂÂ73 and 1977âÂÂ78 BanÃÂk won the Czechoslovak Cup. In the 1975-76 season, the club won the Czechoslovak First League for the first time.
The team's squad was stable in the Golden Era years. The best players like Verner LiÃÂka and Rostislav VojáÃÂek were regularly playing for the national team. Others like Libor Radimec, ZdenÃÂk Rygel, Petr NÃÂmec and ZdenÃÂk à  reiner played for the Olympic team. In the 1979âÂÂ80 season BanÃÂk won their second Czechoslovak title, finishing five points ahead of Zbrojovka Brno. In the 1980âÂÂ81 season of the UEFA European Cup BanÃÂk reached the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by Bayern Munich. In the same season's league, BanÃÂk won the First League for the third time. For the next two seasons, BanÃÂk finished second in the league table. After the 1982âÂÂ83 season, coach Hadamczik resigned, thus symbolically ending the Golden Era of the club.
In the following years, BanÃÂk was unable to reach the highest positions in the league. The team was undergoing another generation change and young players did not maintain their performance for the whole season. BanÃÂk however regularly appeared in the upper part of the league table. In the 1988âÂÂ89 and 1989âÂÂ90 seasons they finished second in the league. In 1991, BanÃÂk won the Czechoslovak Cup by beating Spartak Trnava 6âÂÂ1 in the final.
In the 2003âÂÂ04 season they won the Czech Republic league.
In the winter break of the 2015âÂÂ16 season BanÃÂk were last in the league and in financial distress. At this point the club was bought by Czech businessman Václav Brabec. They were relegated to the Czech Second League for the 2016âÂÂ17 season. In the 2016âÂÂ17 season they finished 2nd and started their rebuild to compete in the Czech First League for the 2017âÂÂ18 season.
With no youth training facilities before the new ownership, under Václav Brabec the team began investing 150 million Kàin three facilities.
1) A partnership in 2017 with K-9 Grade School of J. Ã Â oupal, where they have at their disposal 2 natural fields and 1 artificial field for the youth development.
2) building (expected complete early 2019) new training grounds at Vista that will enable the team to have 2 more artificial fields and 1 natural field for their youth teams.
3) The team is working with the Dvoà Âák High School that will enable their athletes to finish a degree in sports management as well as all 20âÂÂ25 individuals to train together.
Václav Brabec hired former BanÃÂk Ostrava star and home-grown player Marek Jankulovski to take over the role of Duà ¡an Vrà ¥o as the team's Sport Director. Jankulovski brought in a few players such as Daniel Holzer, Patrizio Stronati and Adam Jánoà ¡ for the 2018âÂÂ19 season.
In the 2020âÂÂ21 season Marek Jankulovski stepped down from his role to take the Chairman Board of Directors role. Milan Baroà ¡ retired. Acquisitions before the 2020âÂÂ21 campaign came from FC Slovácko in Jan Juroà ¡ka and TomÃ¡à ¡ ZajÃÂc.
In the early beginnings from 1922 to 1925, the club was without its own ground or stadium. The first ground was completed in Ostrava's miner district "Kamenec" in 1925. Banik was playing there for 9 years and moved to southern part of Silesian Ostrava near by a park "Stará stà Âelnice" (Old Shooting range). It was a special place, because a cable car with coal was running above one of the wooden stands. That was also one of the reasons why the stadium started to fail league criteria in the early 1950s.
The club management was looking for a new place for the new stadium and found it in the area of former basalt quarry. They then started building a new stadium for more than 30,000 spectators and named it Bazaly after the basalt. It was Banik's home from 1959 to 2015 and later had a capacity of approximately 17,500 seats. Currently, Bazaly is being transformed into a youth academy that will have 5 training fields.
In 2015 the club moved to Ostrava's MÃÂstský stadion, which has a capacity of 15,275.
In the late 2000s BanÃÂk had attendances higher than most within the Czech First League.
Ultra supporters of BanÃÂk call themselves Chachaà Âi, which means "bad boys" in the local dialect. Some of the ultras' songs contain lyrics proudly demonstrating willingness to not only sing, but also fight for their club. BanÃÂk's ultras have made friendships over the years, and in 2006 celebrated 10 years of partnership with first league division ekstraklasa Poland club, GKS Katowice. The celebration took the form of a game between the two teams, organised by the clubs' directors. The fixture took place at GKS's stadium, where throughout the 90 minutes the opposing sets of fans sung one another's songs. At the end of the game, both sets of fans climbed over metal fences in order to race onto the pitch come the final whistle to embrace and exchange scarves.
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. Highlighted players are in the current squad.
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