Doha (from our correspondent) – “Yeah, I pretty much remember enough,” says Kolář in an interview for Právo and Sport.cz, which took place in Doha.
When did you go to a big tournament for the first time?
At the EURO in Germany, a year before the revolution. I drove a Škoda with a hundred and five. In Pilsen, where there is now a parking garage near Štruncové sady, I hid stamps in a spare car part. I arrived at the border in Rozvadovo around midnight. And the customs officials…
…they must have been glad to be woken up.
The border guards came out, looked at me and left again. They didn’t check me in until half past seven in the morning. This is how my first outing began. I subsequently spent ten days in Germany, staying with a well-known badge collector. I went to the tournament for Večerní Praha, but in a private way. Two years later I experienced my first World Cup.
Did you also go to Italy in a Skoda?
Clearly. I just exchanged the 150 for a 12-3, which was a minibus. My friend Jirka David and I loaded our things and went to the opening match in Milan. We drove from one stadium to another, slept in the car. We spent most of our time in Florence, where the Czech team lived.
Back then, teams weren’t closed off from the world like they are now, right?
We arrived normally to meet the team at the hotel in Montecatini. It was after dinner, the implementation team was sitting in the restaurant. It was a third compared to today. We started talking with the boys, we described to them how we roam. Masseur Préma Čech got up, handed me the keys to his room and said: guys, go take a shower. And if you want any players to interview, I’ll bring them.
That sounds like science fiction these days.
It was normal back then. So after showering, Préma led us to Skuhráč (Tomáš Skuhravý) and Pep Chovanec’s room. Would you like a beer, gentlemen, they asked. A colleague was driving that evening, I took one out of the fridge. After a pleasant conversation, we set off in the direction of Genoa. We still didn’t know what was going to happen to us.
In the morning, at dawn, our car started to break down in front of Genoa. She gave us a connecting rod hand. There were no mobile phones at that time, so we finally asked for service. Fortunately, there was one who repaired Škoda cars. But the mechanic saw the twelve-three for the first time. I finally arranged with my father-in-law to come with a spare engine. Before he arrived, colleagues from another newsroom took us under their wing for a few days. Italy was great, I got to know a lot of places. But I saw the most at the championship in the United States four years later. The other one, in France, I was already working for the union. It was the first one that I didn’t have to contribute my own money to.
You have crossed over to the other side of the barricade, as they say. Was it difficult for you to perceive that the relations between the media and the national team were gradually deteriorating?
Back at the silver Euro in England, everything was normal. At the team hotel, there was a tap with beer downstairs in the lobby, sponsors and journalists used to go there. After that, both parties became estranged.
The only thing – the boom of the Internet. Anyone who managed a laptop and set up a website could immediately start criticizing, for example, the national team coach. I remember the times when the national team match ended, the players greeted each other on the pitch and the journalists were already standing in front of the cabin door. Mančaft went in, in five minutes the door opened and ten or twelve of us journalists went inside. One sat down next to Ivan Hašek or Pepa Chovance and had an interview with him
Did mutual trust work?
Confidence was maximum. There was a small number of journalists, we knew each other well, and the players knew us. We would never put up with so-and-so having a snake tattooed on his calf or a freckle on his back. Now imagine what would happen if they let a tabloid into the representative cabin at this time.
Subsequently, you experienced the WC in Germany and several European Championships. You are now in Qatar for a week. What stands out to you when compared to the previous ones?
This World Cup is from another galaxy entirely. I dare to say that there won’t be a better championship than in Qatar.
First, the organizers will not be able to hold the tournament in one place. Whoever says that this Qatari model is wrong is wrong. Fans of all participants will come together, this will never happen again. Next time in America and Mexico, many will not meet at all. In Qatar, there is plenty of space everywhere, perfect infrastructure. I think future organizers will always have some limitations compared to Qatar.
