Sparta Prague wears red because its president watched Arsenal in 1906
On a trip to England in 1906, Sparta Prague's club president, Dr Petrik, saw Woolwich Arsenal play in red and brought a set of those shirts home. He had no idea he was founding a tradition. The Czech club has played in red, with white shorts and black socks, ever since.
Sparta began at the end of 1893 with a group of young people gathered around three brothers, Vaclav, Bohumil and Rudolf Rudl. Its founding meeting approved the rules on 16 November, and the club soon adopted a tricolour of blue for Europe with red and yellow for the royal city of Prague. The earliest footballers wore black shirts with a large S, then black-and-white stripes, before the English red took over. The name itself was chosen to evoke the fighting spirit of ancient Sparta.
The first golden age, remembered as Iron Sparta, followed the First World War. Once a national league formed in the mid-1920s, the titles kept coming, and the club twice won the Central European Cup, in 1927 and 1935, a competition then prized much as the Champions League is today. Oldrich Nejedly, top scorer at the 1934 World Cup, played for the club, and before that era Vlasta Burian, later hailed as the king of Czech comedians, kept goal. A third Central European Cup followed in 1964.
Harder years came too. Under the socialist regime the club's name changed repeatedly, and after a 1954 title a long drought set in until Andrej Kvasnak's side revived it in the 1960s, when crowds of almost 40,000 filled the ground. In 1975 Sparta, until then the only Czech club never relegated, dropped to the second division, though it bounced straight back.
A revival brought five straight league titles from 1986 to 1991, and in the first Champions League season of 1991 to 1992 Sparta knocked out Rangers and Marseille, then finished second in a semi-final group alongside Barcelona. Only the group winner went to the final. Today the club holds records of 38 league titles and 16 domestic cups, and plays at Letna Stadium.
Source: AC Sparta Prague
