New Czech FA headquarters opened
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
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The Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR) has opened its new headquarters and Hall of Fame at a ceremony attended by Michel Platini and the UEFA Executive Committee.
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The Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR) has opened its new headquarters and Czech Football Hall of Fame at Strahov in the capital, Prague.
UEFA President Michel Platini and members of the UEFA Executive Committee, which met this week in Prague, were guests of honour at the opening ceremony on Tuesday, ahead of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final between Sweden and Portugal at the city's Eden Stadium. The new installations were funded, among others, by UEFA's HatTrick assistance programme for Europe's national associations.
The FAČR complex includes a fully equipped training centre with four dressing rooms and a pitch. Plans in the near future include the reconstruction of the Friendship Stadium, which is part of the complex, into a modern training centre for Czech national and junior teams.
The headquarters, a three-floor building, includes hospitality premises, congress halls for lectures, a restaurant and a press centre. The upper two floors will be used for offices.
The Hall of Fame offers many famous precious exhibits, including a replica of the UEFA European Championship trophy won by Czechoslovakia in 1976, and an array of national team shirts. Special sections are devoted to famous Czech players, including Josef Bican, Pavel Nedvěd and Josef Masopust, who passed away on Monday at the age of 84. A photo gallery includes all Czech Republic national team players up to the most recent addition, Milan Škoda, who won his first cap in the last UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying match against Iceland on 12 June.
Michel Platini expressed his pleasure that Czech football had found a new home. "The mission of [FAČR president] Miroslav Pelta is to take care of football in the best possible way, and to get as many children as possible involved in playing, and our mission is to assist him in doing it," he said.
Antonín Panenka, whose audacious chipped penalty in a shoot-out against West Germany won the 1976 European title for Czechoslovakia, was among the first visitors to the Hall of Fame. "It is beautiful in here, it is elegant," he said. "It reminds me of many amazing memories. Our history is so rich that the hall could be three times larger."
