Founded in 1922 asSK Slezská Ostrava, Baník has won the Czech First League once, as well as theCzechoslovak First League three times. Internationally the club won theMitropa Cup in 1988 and the Mitropa Super Cup the following year.
Squad of SK Slezská Ostrava in 1923First emblem of the club, drawn by Karel Aniol
The club was founded on 8 September 1922 asSK Slezská Ostrava, when 20 activists signed the establishment treaty in theU Dubu restaurant. The signatories were mostly poor coal miners from the Kamenec coal mining settlement in Ostrava. The founders were Karel Aniol, Arnošt Haberkiewicz, Petr Křižák, František Mruzek and Jaroslav Horák.[1]
SK Slezská Ostrava was a poor club; raising money for the functioning of the club was a common concern. They didn't have their own playing field and were forced to loan fields from wealthier clubs. The first field of its own was built in autumn of 1925 at Kamenec. It was however stony and did not meet requirements of the football officials. In 1934 club activists succeeded in renting the land atStará střelnice from regional wealthy industrialist Count Wilczek. During the summer of 1934 a new field was built there. Many workers volunteered to help with the construction for free. Workers and coal miners often came directly from shifts to build the field.[2]
SK Slezská Ostrava began to compete with other teams in the league system in the spring of 1923. They started in the lowest division(III. třída župy) and were promoted to the higher division the same year. It took, however, some time for the club to reach the highest divisions of football in Czechoslovakia. In 1934 the club won promotion to the Moravian-Silesian Division, one of the highest leagues in the country. The promotion made SK Slezská Ostrava a popular team in the city and public interest was rising. The 1935 derby against Slovan Ostrava atStará střelnice was watched by 5,400 spectators.[3]
TheCzechoslovak First League was dominated byPrague teams at that time, which were advanced in all aspects. Promotion to the First League was, therefore, a big success for SK Slezská Ostrava. In 15 years the team advanced from being obscure minnows to the highest level of football in the country. The first league match atStará střelnice was played on 22 August 1937 against1. ČsŠK Bratislava. In the second match, the newcomer team faced famousSparta Prague in Prague. Though Sparta's roster was full ofnational team players, Baník won 3–2 and caused an immediate sensation.[4] SK Slezská Ostrava survived three seasons in the First League before being relegated in 1940.[citation needed]
SK Slezská Ostrava played at a lower level until 1943, when they were again promoted to the First League. Promotion to the highest league sparked even stronger interest for football in local people. Later, famed opera singerRudolf Asmus even sang a new anthem for the club. In the 1943–44 season the home attendances of SK Slezská Ostrava reached the highest level so far. The match againstSlavia Prague was attended by 33,000 people.[5]
In 1952 the club adopted the nameDSO Baník Ostrava. Since then the name went only through slight changes. In the1954 season, Baník achieved their biggest league success so far, finishing second in the league behind Sparta. In 1959 Baník played for the last time at the oldStará střelnice stadium.Stará střelnice did not meet the requirements set by the football association. The pitch was not grassy, but covered withslag, which was also a reason to close down the stadium.Bazaly stadium was constructed in 1959 inSlezská Ostrava, and was opened on 19 April that year.
In the1965–66 season Baník were weakened by the generation change. They finished 13th in the league table and were relegated to the Second League. After winning the Second League in 1966–67, Baník were promoted back to the top division.[6]
In 1972–73 and 1977–78 Baník won theCzechoslovak Cup.[7] In the1975-76 season, the club won the Czechoslovak First League for the first time.[8]
The team's squad was stable in the Golden Era years. The best players likeVerner Lička andRostislav Vojáček were regularly playing for the national team. Others likeLibor Radimec,Zdeněk Rygel,Petr Němec andZdeněk Šreiner played for the Olympic team. In the1979–80 season Baník won their second Czechoslovak title,[8] finishing five points ahead ofZbrojovka Brno. In the1980–81 season of theUEFA European Cup Baník reached the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out byBayern Munich. In thesame season's league, Baník won the First League for the third time.[8] For the next two seasons, Baník finished second in the league table. After the 1982–83 season, coach Hadamczik resigned, thus symbolically ending the Golden Era of the club.
In the following years, Baník was unable to reach the highest positions in the league. The team was undergoing another generation change and young players did not maintain their performance for the whole season. Baník however regularly appeared in the upper part of the league table. In the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons they finished second in the league. In 1991, Baník won theCzechoslovak Cup by beatingSpartak Trnava 6–1 in the final.[9]
In the winter break of the2015–16 season Baník were last in the league and in financial distress. At this point the club was bought by Czech businessman Václav Brabec.[11] They were relegated to the Czech Second League for the 2016–17 season. In the2016–17 season they finished 2nd and started their rebuild to compete in the Czech First League for the 2017–18 season.
With no youth training facilities before the new ownership, under Václav Brabec the team began investing 150 million Kč in three facilities.
1) A partnership in 2017 with K-9 Grade School of J. Šoupal, where they have at their disposal 2 natural fields and 1 artificial field for the youth development.
2) building (expected complete early 2019) new training grounds at Vista that will enable the team to have 2 more artificial fields and 1 natural field for their youth teams.
3) The team is working with the Dvořák High School that will enable their athletes to finish a degree in sports management as well as all 20–25 individuals to train together.
In the early beginnings from 1922 to 1925, the club was without its own ground or stadium. The first ground was completed in Ostrava's miner district "Kamenec" in 1925. Banik was playing there for 9 years and moved to southern part of Silesian Ostrava near by a park "Stará střelnice" (Old Shooting range). It was a special place, because a cable car with coal was running above one of the wooden stands. That was also one of the reasons why the stadium started to fail league criteria in the early 1950s.
The club management was looking for a new place for the new stadium and found it in the area of former basalt quarry. They then started building a new stadium for more than 30,000 spectators and named it Bazaly after the basalt. It was Banik's home from 1959 to 2015 and later had a capacity of approximately 17,500 seats. Currently, Bazaly is being transformed into a youth academy that will have 5 training fields.
Ultra supporters of Baník call themselvesChachaři, which means "bad boys" in the local dialect.[16] Some of the ultras' songs contain lyrics proudly demonstrating willingness to not only sing, but also fight for their club. Baník's ultras have made friendships over the years, and in 2006 celebrated 10 years of partnership with 2nd divisionPoland club,GKS Katowice. The celebration took the form of a game between the two teams, organised by the clubs' directors. The fixture took place at GKS's stadium, where throughout the 90 minutes the opposing sets of fans sung one another's songs. At the end of the game, both sets of fans climbed over metal fences in order to race onto the pitch come the final whistle to embrace and exchange scarves.[17]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
^abcdJeřábek, Luboš (2007).Český a československý fotbal – lexikon osobností a klubů (in Czech). Prague, Czech Republic: Grada Publishing. pp. 144–145.ISBN978-80-247-1656-5.