Slavia Praha is reaching its best achievements in the past few seasons, and now they are ready for another Europa League campaign.
Except for this success, the club's Chinese owners can be proud of their part in developing football in the Czech capital, but also in their homeland.
Slavia Praha revives through China
In 2016, after six bad years, Slavia Praha finished fifth in the Czech First League and secured a Europa League berth. Their long absence from the European competitions ended that season, but it was only the first step in a glorious era for the club. They won three domestic championships and two Czech cups; Reached the Europa League quarter-finals in 2019, and last season, they made two draws at the Champions League group stage against Barcelona and Inter Milan.
The recent success of the Czech side is mainly thanks to their current owners. In 2015, Slavia was bought by the Chinese energy company CEFC. Three years later, new ownership took over the club. It was a partnership between another two Chinese companies, Sinobo and CITIC. These two companies are also the owners of Beijing Guoan, the current runner-ups of the Chinese Super League.
The fact that Chinese companies own Slavia Praha is not a coincidence. It's a part of the big Chinese plan to develop domestic football.
China is here to learn
Slavia Praha is not the only Chinese-owned team in the Europa League this season. Chinese businessmen and companies also own Wolverhampton Wanderers, Inter Milan, and Granada. The Chinese decision-makers understood that to get better in football, they must be connected to the European clubs’ culture and management methods. Therefore, they are not also learning how a European club is working but also making partnerships. As both clubs have the same owner, Slavia and Guoan have signed partnership agreements.
China is looking for this kind of opportunity after its previous partnerships became absolute failures. Chinese companies have tried to get into European football through sponsorship agreements. One of these agreements was a sponsorship deal for the Portuguese second division. Ledman, a Chinese company that offered to sponsor the league, introduced a clause that will force the clubs to appoint one assistant manager and to sign two players from China. That clause was criticized and later was cancelled.
Another idea is to sign diplomatic partnership agreements. The most remarkable was the Chinese-German agreement in 2017. According to that agreement, the Chinese U-20 national team was supposed to organize a long training camp in Germany, including playing against clubs from the fourth tier. The camp was abandoned after one match due to a continuous protest of pro-Tibet and human rights activists.
The way up is crossing the Middle East
There is no doubt that Chinese-Czech cooperation is also based on the Chinese will. A year ago, Sinobo almost withdrew from the agreement due to a political issue. The city council of Beijing has terminated its agreements with the city of Prague. The reason was the Czech refusal to recognize the One-China Policy, which means that Prague should not recognize Taiwan.
Slavia would not complain about their investors, no matter what their intentions are. As they are kicking off their fourth consecutive group stage participation, Slavia is currently experiencing its best era ever. Slavia Praha will play in the Europa League alongside Bayer Leverkusen, Nice and Hapoel Beer Sheva. Their first match will be played away against the Israeli side.
The Czechs wished to play this season in the Champions League, but they missed it after a defeat against Midtjylland. If the partnership between Slavia and their Chinese owner will continue, the club will have more chances to qualify for Europe's main stage. Meanwhile, Sinobo and CITIC will keep looking for their opportunity to make progress in football's future programs in China.
Thumbnail photo by SK Slavia Praha official Facebook page.
