Sport Clubs in the Czech Republic

Abstract

On 16th February 1862 the first Czech amateur sport club Sokol Pražský was established. This sports club was the basis for the emergence of sports associations SOKOL –, clubs that were implemented in this organization had been oriented in their programs on the versatility. It started the first trend in the development of the Czech sports clubs. Another two sports federation on the same basis as Sokol was founded until 1914. The second trend in the development of sports clubs, was inspired mainly by English concept of sports, was a focus on sports performance. The first purely sporting club in the country can be considered Utraquist Eisklub Prager Verein, established 1868. Before the Second World War in the Czechoslovakia we had about 120 000 sports clubs with nearly 2 million members. From 1949 to 1990 was there the unitary system under one covering sport federation – CSTV. Numbers of clubs were approx 5560 with nearly 1.5 million members in the Czech Republic. Since 1990 began working again the pluralistic system of sports federations, as was the case in 1949. Now the Czech Republic has 10 162 sport clubs in the five main umbrella sport federations and approx 1,7 million members.