Tiny Czech football club keeping rivals on the hop

A soccer fan watches his team Chmel Blsany playing against Liberec, in Blsany. The 300-inhabitant Czech village team which is playing in the Czech first division for the past seven years have produced famous international soccer players like goalkeeper Petr Cech who played in Sparta Prague, Stade Rennais and Chelsea.

It may be a tiny village with just 300 inhabitants but Blsany boasts a professional football club that launched the career of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

"We are undoubtedly the smallest locality where first division football is played, certainly in Europe and I think in the whole world too," says Jindrich Raichl, the young owner of first division club Chmel Blsany.

"Unlike clubs from cities, we don't have any major sponsor behind us. At the end of each season we have to sell two or three of our best players to ensure our survival," he told AFP.

Ranging between 0.8 and 1 million euros, Chmel Blsany's annual budget doesn't even equal one tenth that of league champion Sparta Prague's.

"The annual salary of Karel Poborsky alone equals half our total budget," adds Raichl, referring to the Sparta and former Lazio, Benfica and Manchester United midfielder.

Behind a little stand perched along the sideline at the tiny stadium, the pitch is surrounded by a simple wire iron fence.

Behind it, spectators eat local sausage, 'klobasa', washed down by a good beer, appropriate for a town set in the heart of a major hops region from which the club takes the name 'Chmel' ('hops').

The spectators sit so close that they almost touch the players and coaches, to whom they don't shy from making various remarks and suggestions.

"Our ambition will never be to compete for the UEFA Cup or the Champions' League. But we should not forget that a good number of the members of the national team began their career here," emphasised Raichl.

Those former players include Cech, who joined Blsany as a 17-year-old in 1999 and stayed two years before leaving for Sparta Prague and then Rennes and Chelsea.

Other former players include Stepan Vachousek (Olympique Marseille, Austria Vienna), Vaclav Drobny (Aston Villa, Strasbourg) and Pavel Drsek (MSV Duisburg).

"Petr (Cech) comes back to Blsany from time to time to help in matches and to see people. He never acts like a star even though he is now a real international superstar," said Raichl.

The club's history dates back almost 60 years ago to 1946, when a group of enthusiasts set up a pitch to participate in the lowest local division.

To play in away games, the players rode on a bike or on a trailer pulled by a tractor.

Chmel Blsany soccer team poses in Blsany. The 300-inhabitant Czech village team which is playing in the Czech first division for the past seven years have produced famous international soccer players like goalkeeper Petr Cech who played in Sparta Prague, Stade Rennais and Chelsea.

Player transfers between clubs were arranged for a sack of corn.

Based around 70 kilometres (46 miles west of the Czech capital Prague), the club's unbelievable rise to the first division in 1998 will always be thanks to Frantisek Chvalovsky, Blsany's former porter and president who headed the Czech football federation during the 1990s.

This moustachioed, heavyset man no longer holds any official post at the club after he spent nine months in custody on suspicion of embezzlement in his personal business activities. But he remains omnipresent behind the scenes.

The average attendance at a home game is around 2,100 people which is seven times more than Blsany's population.

"It would be better to play in front of larger crowds but that's the reality, we are in the countryside," coach Michal Bilek, a former international player who played for Sparta Prague and Real Betis, told AFP.

"I am very happy that we could succeed and could stay among the elite. I hope that we can do better next season. But many things depend on the awaited transfers at the heart of the squad," he said.