A cracker with a genius memory who pocketed the Prague “S”

“I was dead for a while, then half-dead, now alive for a while.” These are the words Adolf Šádek used to describe the past months of his life. He said them on the day when his daughter was born and when Viktoria Plzeň advanced to the Champions League for the fourth time and cured the club’s coffers of over-indebtedness.

Who is Adolf Šádek? A person who barely sleeps and is said to be able to call people even at half past five in the morning. Krupan, what a very rude expression does not go far even in normal friendly communication. At the same time, he is a man with a brilliant memory who remembers everything important and every silly thing. Or also a guy who at one time was completely crazy about the world of motorcycles.

But the most appropriate one-word designation for Adolf Šádek is: šíbr. Of course, the word doesn’t sound very flattering to the general public. After all, in a negative context it is closely associated with football, evoking various rumors and unfair behind-the-scenes games.

However, you would undoubtedly also find fans who would say in appreciation: “Sir, this is a big shill!” Because in their eyes, for example, the person in question is well versed in the transfer market and in football in general. He can arrange this and that.

And all this is also Adolf Šádek, now a forty-seven-year-old man who has worked his way up from operating a Sokolov disco to the position of owner of a club starting in the Champions League, today at the Camp Nou stadium.

Why? A rather simple answer is offered: Because Viktoria Plzeň, a club operating on debt, was able to overtake in the league the economically much better secured teams of Slavia and Sparta. And even break the bank by advancing to the Champions League.

However, reality is much more plastic and multi-layered. The influence of one of the richest Czechs, Daniel Křetínský, and not only on football, is understandably unquestionable. But Adolf Šádek is tangibly much closer to the football half-world, it forms (almost) his entire life. For Křetínský, it is a relaxation zone and a hobby. As much as he takes Sparta and West Ham seriously, he has more important things to do in his Energy and Industrial Holding.

After all, we have already attempted to compare the degree and nature of the influence of these two men on football in this text.

Today we will try to introduce Adolf Šádek, the most influential man in Czech football. To get further, deeper than his established image and profile perceived by fans. If they don’t keep their fingers crossed for Plzeň, they usually perceive Šádek as a jerk who yells at the referee and can probably “solve” them somehow.

“When the media adore Šádek and praise what a great and successful manager he is, they will only legitimize the cesspool that Czech football has turned into.” This is an opinion that often appears on social networks.

Adolf Šádek certainly knows his stuff about football cesspools. This is evidenced by the communication intercepted by the police between him and Roman Berber on the topic of appointing referees to Viktoria matches. As well as Šádko’s inseparable friendship with Martin Svoboda alias Chřestýš, a man prosecuted for the second time on suspicion of football corruption.

You certainly can’t adore Šádek, but you can’t ignore him either. He is indeed a man of extraordinary ability in many respects. The results of his work, i.e. Viktoria Plzeň’s six titles and fourth promotion to the Champions League, speak for themselves. And the one who thinks that only the referees are behind all of this narrows the reality too much.

The Seznam Zpráv reporter talked about Adolf Šádek with a number of people in the football environment in recent days. And with them he searched for an answer to the question of why Šádek is so successful, what he excels at and how far his influence extends. Many talked about him with the condition of a promise that their name would not appear in the text.

Miroslav Pelta, the former chairman of FAČR, had no problem with that. “Ada has one great advantage. He is incredibly hardworking and surrounds himself with smart, loyal people. He listens to their opinions, but makes his own decisions,” says Pelta.

And he continues: “He knows the chemistry of the cabin, he has a much higher pain threshold and one big advantage in addition. He does football in a city and county where football is more than politics. Coalition versus opposition struggles do not exist in their case towards football. And I would add one more thing to Ád: Fortune favors the prepared.” And that’s what Adolf Šádek always is, according to all the testimonies. And for everything.

He used to play football in Sokolov himself, but four knee surgeries said: enough. A graduate of the transport secondary school started his own business, and according to eyewitnesses, very sharp guys, capable of causing a lot of problems, sometimes appeared at his disco in Sokol.

At the same time, Šádek also started working in football, he tried coaching, but he found himself as… a skunk. Sokolovský football pulled from the low floors with a vertical lift up to the second league. And soon he moved to the first league Viktoria Plzeň.

At that time, under the care of the ambitious owner Miroslav Kříž, great things began to happen. Interesting players came, usually discarded by Sparta, coach Pavel Vrba worked with them. And František Mysliveček played a significant role in the composition of the team.

In May 2010, this group survived the most critical moment, which was the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of the owner Miroslav Kříž. Because of the unpaid players, the shares of Viktoria Plzeň could fall in favor of Daniel Křetínský. But Šádek created a determined group of other creditors who prevented this and found a solution in the person of the club’s new owner Tomáš Paclík.

Šádek originally came to Viktoria as a sports manager. Thanks to his abilities, he was soon promoted to general manager. And he quickly learned sports matters from the experienced Mysliveček. The Šádek–Mysliveček–Vrba trio met daily for coffee and continuously coordinated the events surrounding the A-team. When the three decided and agreed on something fundamental, they presented it to Tomáš Paclík, the owner of the club, for a final decision.

A simple, effective management model, which Sparta, for example, with its sports councils, general sports managers and wayward owner, never worked towards.

“If Áda Šádek worked in Sparta, they would celebrate the Summer title year after year,” agreed many of those interviewed. But Šádek works in Pilsen. He spent fat years in it, full of success, even years when it was not possible to advance to the European Cup. Reserves were dwindling and debt was mounting.

Šádek’s words “dead and half-dead” belong here. Tomáš Paclík was no longer up for it and Šádek bought the club from him for a more or less symbolic 2 million crowns. Many behind the scenes in football believe that the liabilities have increased to 300-400 million crowns, Šádek himself has been saying recently that they were much lower. You can certainly ask him directly, but Seznam Zpráv leaves all questions on various topics unanswered for a long time.

It is certain that Šádek did not stop even for a second. “He is always, how to say, on the front line. Always on guard. He breathes for the club, he actually sacrificed everything for it. Áda Šádek is the heart of Viktoria Plzeň,” describes Jakub Otava, former manager of Sparta Prague, now executive director of 11Hacks, a company that offers data analysis to the football environment.

A few examples of how Šádek works: He always wants to have everything under control. After the Sokolov discotheque, he also ran a restaurant. And he managed it from his office at the Pilsen stadium. He watched the events of the company online through the installed web cameras, and if he didn’t like something, he immediately intervened by phone.

He needs to talk about everything. When it rains and throws off the original plan, he immediately starts to decide which youth team will go to this field and which will go to another. He doesn’t just focus on A-team stuff, he runs the whole club, with all the relationships and affiliations. And it doesn’t even have to be present in Štruncový sady.

“I’m going to Prague, we’re calling,” he announces at the club every now and then. He commutes between Pilsen and Prague all the time. The car is driven by a bodyguard, because Šádek is constantly on the phone. He is in contact with a huge number of people, not only from football. He hides the tickets to Barcelona for him, if he helps him with this and that, and he can arrange a priority examination by a specialist doctor. The all-rounder Šádek can arrange almost anything.

After all, it is reminiscent of stories from the Ivankov era, when one of the referees argued with Ivan Horník that his daughter did not get into college. And together they were looking for some patronage that would “fix” it.

Šádek upgraded not only these skills in full display. A planet called Viktoria Plzeň connects the top of the local social ladder with the “rest of the world”. And Adolf Šádek is the link. He knows how to oblige people even with small things, he doesn’t forget anyone or anything.

His main “hunting ground” is, of course, the football pond. Practically all officials from I. or II. leagues, often also from lower competitions, is in constant contact, distributes cheerful messages at meetings, arranges deals. For example, transfers of teenagers or youth coaches. Just everything.

This is also how a map of his influence is created. It is therefore not surprising that he can easily get the necessary number of votes for his goals both on the grounds of the League Football Association, and also at the general meeting of the Football Association of the Czech Republic, where more than 200 delegates gather.

“Ada lobbies practically everything she sets her mind to. When F-evolution wanted to overthrow General Secretary Valtro, the right-hand man of Chairman Fousko, Šádek intervened. Thanks to him, some previous arrangements fell through and Valtr remained in office, Fousek is obliged to Šádek for that,” says one of the officials, who did not wish to be named.

“On the other hand, Šádek arranged that the proposal for new statutes did not pass to Fouska at the FAČR general meeting in the Czech Chamber,” says the same source.

Shadek works as an element that penetrates everywhere that can be penetrated. For example, where space is freed up, for example after Roman Berbro, now a criminally prosecuted official. Where Berbrovo used to be, Šádkovo is becoming more and more. And it doesn’t have to be about referees at all.

But it can too. Adolf Šádek was never prosecuted for this issue. But investigated yes. It was about this communication with “Chief” Berber from 2013.

“Please don’t give me that cop next week!! I prefer Karla H., will it work?” Šádek wrote in an SMS. The police caught her. Just like another debate. “Especially if you have dancing shoes,” replied Berbr. “Parnish like a cow… you’ll see,” returned Šádek.

It was the fact that they were also talking about the ball of the Pilsen Regional Football Association that helped both expletives in their search for an answer, how to explain the request regarding “that cop”. Both of them told the investigators that it was not about the appointment of referees, but about the meeting order at the aforementioned ball. And it was.

We wrote more about the entire case, which the police postponed, here.

The fact that Šádek does not really suffer from moral dilemmas is also evidenced by his long-standing close friendship with Martin Svoboda, nicknamed Chřestýš.

Years ago, two judges gave a statement to a notary that Chřestýš offered and then paid them 200,000 crowns if Viktoria Plzeň won the match against Jablonec. At the court, however, judges Adámek and Býma refused to testify, and thus the whole case was lost.

At the same time, he loosely followed up on the Křetínský bag affair, when Sparta reacted to the feeling, confirmed many times by reality, that Viktoria was long-term pressured in the league by the judges, controlled by Dagmar Damková, i.e. behind the scenes by her husband Roman Berber.

In court, it became clear that Svoboda and Šádek are in almost constant communication. Svoboda alias Chřestýš travels with Pilsen to European Cup matches and foreign training camps, he is always at hand. And even at this time, when he is again being prosecuted for corruption, according to the investigator in favor of the Brozan team. You can read more about Svoboda and his relationship with Viktoria Plzeň here.

There is no doubt that Ivan Horník was also one of the most influential men in Czech football in his era. Before the cage fell on him. “Ivánek” still negotiated everything with the referees in person, on the phone, with simple-minded encryption about apples and dimes. Time has advanced. It seems much more efficient and safer to use an intermediary.

Adolf Šádek is walking the path of big windows. A cage has already fallen on Horník, Pelta and Berber. Sadek is playing in Barcelona tonight.

See where and how Adolf Šádek reached the position of the most influential man in Czech football. And who did he meet on the way: