At the continental championship, Jaroslav Šilhavý fought his way through the Czech team among the top eight. However, the team failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. The coach and his implementation team expire this summer. It was therefore expected how the leadership of the Football Association of the Czech Republic would approach the matter.
“The executive committee instructed me to discuss with coach Šilhavý the possibility of extending his contract,” said its chairman Petr Fousek after the meeting of the “football government”. He admitted that the views of its 12 members differed in the discussion. “But in the end, the final position was basically clear.”
Fousek wants to solve the whole thing quickly. “Best by the end of April, which actually means by the end of this week,” he says. He admits that it may happen that both parties do not agree on the parameters of the new contract. “But I have been given a mandate to reach an agreement, and of course I will try.”
Information is leaking that Šilhavý would like a contract for the next two qualification cycles. “I’ll offer him one plus automatic option for the final tournament,” says Fousek. It is likely that one of the coach’s conditions will be a salary increase. Now, according to behind-the-scenes reports, he should receive 450,000 crowns a month.
It is certain that manager Libor Sionko will no longer work for the national team. “We have concluded an agreement on the termination of cooperation valid at the end of April,” says Fousek. Until he replaces Sionka, he has no idea.
After many months of confusion and uncertainty, the FACR will occupy the position of technical director, who will be in charge of the entire sports part of the association, including youth representations and development projects.
“The sports council proposed a trio of Jiří Plíšek, Zdeněk Psotka and Karel Poborský. The executive committee decided to contact Zdeněk Psotka, “said Fousek. He outlined that it was agreed with Viktoria Plzeň that the club would release Psotka to work for the association.
Psotka, a former coach or official from Olomouc, has been Viktoria’s sports director for several years, and was mainly in charge of the youth section in Pilsen. Psotka is one of the members of the FACR Sports Council. He shall leave this advisory body upon his appointment as Technical Director.
Interestingly, the Sports Council did not ask the association’s management for an opinion on the national team coach. “We didn’t want to burden them with that,” Fousek said.
The sports council is chaired by Vladimír Šmicer, who is one of the leading protagonists of F-evolution. This is the movement that, after the fall of Roman Berbr, came at the level of the Czech regions with a great personnel revolution, which last June enabled the election of Petr Fousek as chairman of the association.
But now Fousek is in conflict with F-evolution. On Monday, it issued an opinion in which it sharply criticizes the activities of Michal Valter, the Secretary General of the FACR, and therefore Fousek’s closest collaborator.
At the beginning of today’s meeting of the members of the FACR Executive Committee, it was voted on whether the proposal of the F-evolution representatives would be on the agenda. The representative of F-evolution Tomáš Neumann and Rudolf Řepka was supported by only one of the Moravian officials Pavel Nezval.
“I respect the decision of the Executive Committee because the F-evolution proposal was completely unacceptable. Including the method of media coverage and manipulative information pushed by the media, “Fousek said. He considers the actions of F-evolution to be a disloyal move.
“Of course, this does not mean that many things cannot be improved, but the solutions chosen by F-evolution do not even apply in football-developing countries,” Fousek added. “No one will train me in professionalism.”
