Czech Football Crisis: Refereeing & Slavia Under Fire

August 2025, third round and match Slovácko – Slavia (0:1). “It would be hard for me to find a two-minute passage when football was played,” described the visiting coach Jindřich Trpišovský.

At that time, the reigning champion analyzed what was happening on the field, that football was not being played. The result of the search? Most delays were caused by car throw-ins.

You know it yourself: a defender rushes to the line, then changes his mind and is replaced by a teammate. When it’s a home game, he still sometimes wipes the ball with a towel. Tactics? Definitely. A lot can come from a faceoff.

However, you could come up with a lot of opportunities to delay the game. Many things are already influenced by the coaches with tactics, something goes to the referees. And here and there the fans get involved. When it all adds up, it’s a potato chip that’s sometimes fun, but more often boring.

Worst match? Pilsen – Slavia

As far as delays are concerned, the Czech Republic has been the champion on the football map for a long time. In 2019, she did not please much informationthat in an absolute comparison of 35 European competitions, the Czech Republic is in the worst position with an average net time of matches of around fifty percent.

The situation has not changed, on the contrary.

According to the current data of the analytical company Opta, which is available to the television station Oneplay Sport, four autumn matches did not even last forty minutes of clean time.

That’s, just for the record, not even half time!

Paradoxically, for the shortest time, the fans enjoyed the dramatic match between Viktoria Plzeň and Slavia (3:5). Total time: 112:52. Net time: 38:02. Number of fouls: 14:24. Quite a shame, don’t you think?

“The numbers we received are very worrying,” notes David Sobišek, head of the soccer section at Oneplay Sport. “A lot of matches start fair and well, but then the players or coaches don’t help the referees, and instead of a beautiful game, football becomes a dismembered duel and the clean time is crying,” he adds.

Tactics against a better opponent

By the way, stitching is the imaginary target on their back.

Football was not played that long even in the case of their matches at Bohemians (38:50, result 0:2) and in Olomouc (40:54, result 0:0).

From the logic of the matter, the thesis is that worse teams, who are currently holding an interesting result, are deliberately resorting to delaying. Any controlled delay helps physically less prepared teams. “The more we don’t play, the more the players rest,” mentioned Trpišovský.

A rare situation occurred recently in the Champions League, again during the match of Slavia, who hosted Athletic Club from Bilbao, Spain. The goal was not scored, the points were shared, the fans left Eden embarrassed, angry.

While normally at this level the ball is in play for more than fifty minutes, here the analysts’ stopwatch stopped at 40:48. “The referee dealt with 129 fights and blew the whistle for 43 fouls. The situations he had to deal with were almost as many as compared to other matches in the same competition,” Sobišek mentions.

Referees have a lot of power

It was this match that showed how much a referee can help (or hurt). Lithuanian arbitrator he slowed down the pace himself, instead of pushing the actors of the match.

“I would definitely be in favor of referees admonishing players and goalkeepers more often and earlier, it would help to eradicate certain evils in football. As fans and lovers of football, we need the ball more in the game, there are a lot of stoppages and it is absolutely necessary to focus on it even more,” adds Sobišek.

Another literally alarming example of delay? During the December match Olomouc – Sparta (0:1), while the score was still tied, the home goalkeeper Jan Koutný held the ball three times longer than the rules allow. He had control of the balloon for 24 seconds! The Chief Justice allowed it.

The theme of clean time and delay also resonates with the judges. However, Libor Kovařík, head of the commission at the football association, points out that the teams should start with each other first.

“The main culprit is not the referees, but the teams,” he says.

There is one easy solution. Set the time. Not the classic three minutes, not the “long” six minutes. But even fifteen minutes, which was the trend at the World Cup in Qatar. “There were conflicting reactions to it,” states Kovařík.

What about clean time following the example of other sports? “That would do more harm than good. Everything is speeding up today, on the contrary, football would stretch out,” Sobišek thinks.