VAR & Winter League: No Champion, No Tech?

“The Winter Tipsport League is a great addition to the winter football break, especially for the spectators. Even though the teams do not play in the top lineups, it is an interesting spectacle. I liked playing in similar tournaments, I enjoyed training matches in them, and now I enjoy going directly to the stadium to cheer,” said Rada, who last coached Prague’s Dukla.

The league will start on January 10 next year. A total of sixteen clubs are divided into four groups, each of which will play three matches. The teams will then be ranked according to the number of points in a common table, which will decide the winner. He will receive a reward of 200,000 crowns on January 30. In total, one million crowns will be distributed between the clubs.

However, Varnsdorf, who triumphed last year, will not appear in the competition this year. “Due to the circumstances, we preferred teams from the first and second leagues,” explains the director of the Tipsport winter league, Aleš Kolář, and confirms that Liberec, Hradec Králové, Zlín or Teplice will be represented in the Chance League, while Prešov and Skalica will represent Slovakia’s elite competition.

The planned warm-up training sessions are the reason why the vast majority of teams from the highest competitions will play the tournament with players from a wider squad. Prague Dukla will also test three players from Angola at the tournament, according to sports director Martin Hašek, they are “first-class talents.”

Slovakian Spartak Trnava initially confirmed their participation in the tournament, but they received an interesting offer to train in the heat, so Dynamo Malženice takes their place, for whom it will be the premiere. The two clubs are strongly connected, so many regular Trnava players will play in the Malženice jersey.

Compared to last year, at least on Czech pitches, the matches will be played entirely without the presence of the VAR system. “Finally, it will be good old football. Everything will be decided on the pitch, no video interference,” Rada says. The implementation of the system on Slovak lawns will depend on the Slovak Football Association.

The official ball of the competition will be a Joma brand balloon, whose manufacturer guarantees that the properties and shape of the ball will not be affected by temperature conditions, which has been a problem in previous years.

The matches will take place at five venues – in Prague, Mladá Boleslav, Prostějov, Skalice and Senec. “There are a lot of good teams there. It will depend on their approach and the width of the squad. The favorites should be the teams from the first league,” stated the former coach of Dukla.