Almost six months of searching for the right men is over. The Football Association knows the successor of Erich Brabec, whose original position was divided into two places. As predicted by the Sport daily and the iSport website, Aleš Křeček became the sports director and Petr Janoušek will now hold the position of youth development manager. “I consider it a very important decision. Even if it took a little time, I’m glad that we devoted a lot of time to it,” said FAČR chairman David Trunda at a press conference on Thursday.
For the current employees at Strahov, it is not about new faces. The winners of the selection process are currently working for the Football Association. Aleš Křeček is the coach of the national team, Petr Janoušek heads the Department of Coaches and Education. Although the contract of the second of them expired at the end of last year.
“Knowledge of the environment is a huge advantage. Their presentation of the concepts and development of individual departments made sense to us,” explained the decision of the head of the association, David Trunda, noting that the executive committee elected both unanimously at a special meeting on Thursday.
In the end, it was a very lengthy process. Last August, the unwanted Erich Brabec left the position of technical director, and half a year was spent waiting to see who would take his place. The association announced a selection procedure for the “split” positions of sports director and manager for sports development (development manager).
A total of forty-four applications were collected in the offices in Strahov for both positions, which are important for the development of football in the Czech Republic. Those who passed the first screen were invited to an interview last Wednesday to make oral presentations and face questions from a five-member panel.
The short list also included well-known names such as coaches Roman Pivarník, until recently the technical director of the Slovak Football Association, and Josef Csaplár, who has long drawn attention to the need for systemic changes in the functioning of Czech football.
Aliens out of the game
Another candidate was, for example, manager Pavel Vandas. Among those who went to Strahov was the former head of the football department of the newspaper Sport, Jan Podroužek, who currently works as an assistant coach in Viktorie Žižkov’s B team.
In addition to the domestic candidates, four foreign options have reportedly also appeared. “There was communication with them, we were close to considering a foreign candidate,” Trunda mentioned. Nevertheless, not one of the variants was realistically in the game. “As we travel around the Czech Republic and talk to the chairmen and members of individual committees, we see that it would be difficult for them. We need someone who can help us quickly start the whole process and grasp it conceptually.” Therefore, the choice fell on the employees of the association.
Křeček has experience not only from working with youth national teams, but also worked in clubs such as Zbrojovka Brno, Zlín, Baník, Slavia, Ústí or Jihlava – either as an assistant or head coach.
“He knows the functioning of the football organization and precisely named the negative things that need to be worked on. His presentation and concept met our expectations. He focused mainly on the section of youth national teams from 15 to 21 years of age and described exactly the intention of restructuring the academies and the entire youth sector,” Trunda said.
Janoušek, who started as a youth coach at Baník Ostrava and later moved to Sparta, will work closely with Křeček from the position of youth development manager. “We evaluated the results of the development and functioning of education on the part of the association, and there is an awful lot of work ahead of us,” explained Trunda. “Individual departments must work together, at the same time everything will also be connected to the general manager Pavel Nedvěd. There will be a big discussion between them on how to further develop youth football, as well as the development of coaches is a huge topic for us,” he added.
The work of both officials will be gradually evaluated according to clear criteria. “Both candidates have presented checkpoints for the three and a half year period. We have it clearly defined, we have named primary and secondary goals that we will present to the public together with both colleagues,” promised Trunda.
So far, a loss of 16 million is expected
The executive committee also approved the budget for this year for the entire group of companies under the football association at the extraordinary meeting. At the marketing company STES is calculated at this moment with a loss of sixteen million crowns. “We looked at STES really fulfilling the function of a marketing-trading company as it should. We made changes to do a little different work there than in previous years and the partners clearly knew that working with us made sense,” said the chairman of the association David Trunda, saying that individual budgets will be evaluated every month and possibly updated. “I believe that at STESU we will reach even positive numbers with the arrival of new partners,” he added.
