The 2021–22 Czech First League, known as the Fortuna Liga is the 29th season of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

's top-tier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

for professional clubs since its 1993 establishment.

SK Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional association football, football football team, club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are ...

were the reigning champions. The season started on 24 July 2021. The first half of the season had 19 rounds, finishing on 19 December 2021, and the other half commenced on 5 February 2022. The season ended on 14 May 2022 with two extra play-out fixtures on 19 and 22 May 2022. The season format was changed back to be played with 16 clubs, each team playing in the league format home and away matches, before the league split into three sections: championship, play-off and relegation groups. The lowest-ranked team was relegated directly to the second league, the two teams positioned 14th and 15th played a play-out with two teams from the second league positioned 2nd and 3rd in a home and away format. This was the fourth season to use VAR, featuring it in all matches played. All matches were played on weekdays, with no Friday fixtures expected.

Season summary

This was the fourth season sponsored by the Fortuna betting agency with a contract valid until 2024 as well as TV broadcasting rights held by O2 TV, which showed all eight matches per week. This was the first season that national broadcaster

ČT Sport ČT Sport (known as ČT4 Sport from 2006 to 2008 and ČT4 from 2008 to 2012) is a Czech national sports channel operated by Czech Television. History ČT Sport was launched as ČT4 Sport on 10 February 2006 to promote digital television. Its ma ...

did not possess any rights to broadcast any of the fixtures. ''Blesk'' held the rights to the highlights from all matches. The 2021–22 season began on 24 July, thirteen days after the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

final. With most of the national team players still released for vacations,

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

and

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

started with incomplete first-team squads. After ten match-weeks the trio recorded one loss each, Viktoria in the 6th round at

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...

, Sparta in the seventh round in Plzeň and Slavia in round 10 in the Prague Derby at

Letná Letná is a hill overlooking Prague historic centre and Vltava River just besides Prague Castle. It neighbours Stromovka, the largest park in Prague. The hill belongs to Holešovice and Bubeneč quarters of Prague 7. The main part of Letn� ...

on 3 October 2021. Sparta Prague ended the longest non-winning streak of derby matches after five-and-a-half years at 14 matches. It was also an interruption of Slavia Prague's record unbeaten streak of 54 matches in the first league.

Teams

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

A total of sixteen teams contest the league, including fifteen sides from the 2020–21 season and the winner of last season's second league. ;Team promoted to Czech First League Due to a reduction from 18 to 16 teams, only the winner of the FNL advanced to the first league. On 8 May 2021

defeated

Dukla Prague Dukla Prague () was a Czech football club from the city of Prague. Established in 1948 as ATK Praha, the club won a total of 11 Czechoslovak league titles and eight Czechoslovak Cups, and in the 1966–67 season, reached the semi-finals of the ...

2–1 and secured the promotion with three matches remaining. Hradec Králové therefore participated in the top tier after four years of absence. ;Teams relegated from Czech First League The three lowest positioned teams from the last season were relegated to the Fortuna National League. On 8 May 2021,

Opava Opava (; , ) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Opava (river), Opava River. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia and was a historical capital of Czech Sile ...

became the first team to be relegated to FNL after a 1–1 draw at

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...

with three games remaining, ending their three-year stay in the top flight. On 16 May 2021, Zbrojovka became the second team to be relegated to FNL after a 1–1 draw at Slovan Liberec with two games remaining, ending their one-year stay in the top flight. On 23 May 2021, Příbram's relegation was confirmed following a 0–1 defeat at home against Pardubice with one game remaining, ending their First League tenure after three years.

Locations and stadiums

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Ahead of the season: During the season:

Regular season

League table

Results

Championship group

Points and goals were carried over in full from the regular season.

Play-off

Because only four teams qualified for European competitions from the Czech First League due to a low national coefficient, the winner of the play-off only received a cash bonus and a better position in the

2022–23 Czech Cup The 2022–23 Czech Cup, known as the MOL (company), MOL Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th season of the annual knockout association football, football tournament of the Czech Republic. It began with the preliminary round on 22 July 2022. ...

Relegation group

Points and goals were carried over in full from the regular season.

Relegation play-offs

Teams placed 14th and 15th in the relegation group faced the teams placed second and third in the

Czech National Football League The Czech National Football League (, ''FNL''), known as Chance Národní Liga due to sponsorship reasons, is the second level professional association football league in the Czech Republic. Before 2013 it was known as 2. liga or Druhá liga. The ...

for two spots in the next season.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Updated at the end of the season.

Hat-tricks

;Notes ⁴ Player scored 4 goals
(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Updated at the end of the season.

Awards

Monthly awards

Annual awards

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czech First League, 2021-22 2021–22 in European association football leagues 1 2021-22