Prague, March 31 (CTK) – The Prague City Hall will buy the football stadium used by the top league team of Bohemians 1905, one of the football oldest clubs in the country, the city councillors agreed yesterday.
The city authorities will pay 121 million crowns to the owner, the Bohemians Real company. The club will pay the remaining seven million crowns.
“This is a big success that can guarantee the future of the first league in Vrsovice for our club,” Bohemians 1905 director Darek Jakubowitz told CTK, referring to the stadium in the Vrsovice neighbourhood.
“There were only few alternative solutions for maintaining the top league for our club, maybe no at all,” Jakubowitz said.
As the club’s contract for using the stadium would end in summer, Bohemians 1905 might have lost the licence to play the top league.
Last summer, the owner of the stadium terminated the contract with the club, but later it extended the contract.
The club faced serious finacial problems in the last two decades.
The authorities have been negotiating about the purchase of the Vrsovice stadium since 2011. The city district, in whose territory the stadium is situated, reached an agreement on the swap of the stadium for nearby plots in 2014, but the City Hall rejected the deal.
The Bohemians 1905 football club has a long history. It was founded in 1905, but then its name was AFK Vrsovice. In 1927, a football tour to Australia influenced its name and symbols: the club changed its name to Bohemians and a kangaroo was added to its green and white flag.
In the 1980s, the team won the home league and advanced to the Europa League semifinals (called UEFA Cup then). The club’s most legendary player is midfielder Antonin Panenka whose career culminated in the 1970s.
($1=23.896 crowns)
