Madelon

La Madelon was a French popular song of the 1914-18 war.
I do not know how it came to be the nickname of the Czech footballer Jan Knobloch , but he was, throughout his career, known as Madelon.

Madelon joined Sparta Prague in 1927 and won the Czech national championship in 1932. He also made 18 appearances for the Czech national team (1929-33). The image is from a cigarette card by the German company Richard Greiling Zigarettenfabrikan. 

Acknowledgements  to http://collectorscrack.blogspot.co.uk

Bohemian Corinthians in Russia 1910

In 1910 a Bohemian representative side drawn from 4 clubs visited St Petersburg, Moscow and then London.  This was during a period when Bohemia (or the Czechs) were without representation in the international arena. Of the tourists Richard Veselý had represented Bohemia whilst they were recognized by FIFA (1906-08).  Inspired, no doubt, by the visits of Corinthian FC to Prague during the 1900s the team styled themselves Corinthians. When they played in London, the tourists were billed as Bohemia 

The squad was as follows- some of the players first names are not recorded.

Jan Hejda	Slavia
Schtrempel	Pardubice
Richard Veselý	Slavia
Čech	Slavia
Vopálecký	Slavia
Karel Bukovský	Slavia
Franya	Union Žižkov
Kovarchik	Union Žižkov
Josef Beneš	Novoměstský
Ladislav Medek	Slavia
Vykhanovský	Union Žižkov
Zdeněk Jahn	Slavia

15.10.10	St.Petersburg B	0	15	Corinthians	St. Petersburg Sport SK ground
16.10.10	St. Petersburg	5	4	Corinthians
18.10.10	Sport (спорт)	0	6	Corinthians
21.10.10	SKS (CKC)	1	5	Corinthians	Moscow SKS ground
23.10.10	Moscow	1	0	Corinthians
28.10.10	AFA XI	2	1	Bohemia	London

all dates New Style. 

Ladislav Medek is reported to have scored 14 goals in the opening match.

The Moscow team that inflicted a 1-0 defeat on the tourists was made up of 9 Britons and 2 Russians. The Russian press at the time referred to the match as an 'international'. The game attracted 3,000 spectators, and was played on a hard, frozen pitch.  Medek dislocated his shoulder.  Newman headed the Moscow goal in the 70th minute. 

Moscow XI

Whilst hailing the win as a triumph for football in Russia, contemporary reports  conceded that result flattered the victors, and that the Czechs had been over confident in their approach to the game.

Manchester United in Central Europe 1908

United and Ferencváros

Having won the League Championship for the first time in the 1907-08 season, Manchester United, under the leadership of Ernest Mangnall, embarked on their first overseas tour.

06.05.08	Zurich Select	2*	4	Manchester United	Zurich
11.05.08**	Slavia	0	2	Manchester United	Prague
12.05.08***	Slavia	0	2	Manchester United	Prague
13.05.08	WSC	0	4	Manchester United	Vienna
15.05.08	WAC	0	5	Manchester United	Vienna
17.05.08	Vienna Select	0	4	Manchester United	Vienna
22.05.08	Budapest Select ****	2	6	Manchester United	Budapest
24.05.08	Ferencváros	0	7	Manchester United	Budapest

* 1 in some sources

** In some sources 09.05.08

*** in some sources 10.05.08

**** teams represented were MTC, Ferencváros & BTC

I can only find a full team listing for the game with WAC-Moger, Stacey, Burgess, Duckworth , Thompson, Downie, Meredith, Bannister,Turnbull, Picken, Wall- a strong United XI.
As Mr Mangnall commented on his return to England that United would never play Slavia again I can only assume that there was some controversy attached to the games in Prague- the English press reports contain nothing that enlightens us on this matter. 
In Vienna, the press commented, the referee ran along the touchline 'in a tremendous state of excitement...some of the attitudes he struck were simply magnificent'. The United players in this match were also surprised by the presence of some Oldham Athletic supporters- expats living in Vienna who attended despite the 1s 8d admission price. 
The game that attracted the most attention was the clash with Ferencváros.  The game ended with United being escorted from the ground by armed mounted police having being pelted with stones by the spectators (there were 16,000 present). Thompson received a superficial injury. 

Refereeing was the issue, as was often the case with overseas games in this era. The rules on the continent tended to be interpreted differently- physical contact, a staple of the English game, was frowned upon. 
Firstly it would appear that there were 'goal judges' deployed at the posts who actually interfered with the play in some way. 
There was controversy over a penalty awarded to United-  a United forward 'cleverly rolled into the penalty area' after being fouled, According to Hungarian sources the referee was aware of the deceit but was placed under pressure by the Manchester United players. Goalkeeper Moger scored the penalty to complete the 7-0 scoreline.
There is also some suggestion that the referee wished to dismiss 3 United players for overly physical play. Ferencváros lost 2 players to injury. Communication broke down and when one of the United men (Thompson) placed a hand on the referees shoulder the crowd became incensed.
Some reports held that there were no hard feelings after the game and that the 2 sides dined together, a suggestion dismissed by Mr Mangnall.

Manchester Courier

Incidentally, in the Ferencváros game 2 of the great players of the era shared a pitch for the only time. Billy Meredith and Imre Schlosser made 116 international appearances between them in careers that totalled 48 years.

Plánička

František Plánička played  969 games for Slavia Prague, 76% of which ended in victory. During thirteen seasons that Plánička was at the club between 1925 and 1938, Slavia won seven league titles. He played 73 games for Czechoslovakia. The English influence on central European football was evident in one of his nicknames-  Majster Robinzonád- The Master Diver. The diving save being known as a Robinzonád after the turn of the century Southampton and England 'keeper Jack Robinson.

 Plánička was 172cm.

The picture above shows Plánička as captain of Czechoslovakia at the 1934 World Cup Final. He is shaking hands with Gianpierro Combi- the goalkeeper and captain of Italy.

Mr. John Madden

Fussball Ohne Aufnehmen Des Balles (Assoziation-Fussball)

First published in 1909, this 90 page booklet was volume 18 in a series on sports and games. The title rather charmingly translates as Football Without Picking Up The Ball. Author Johannes Scharfe was a pioneer of football in Silesia , secretary of VfB Leipzig and director of the Leipzig Football Association. Herr Scharfe was also a referee. 

The cover photograph appears to show Slavia Prague in action. 

Mistrovství Čech a Moravy 1896-1902

Sparta 1896

 Mistrovství Čech a Moravy, a championship for the Czech regions of the Habsburg Monarchy (Bohemia and Moravia) was first held in 1896. The initial championship  Národní zápasy mužstev kopaný míč cvičících attracted 4 entrants from Prague-  CFK Kickers, SK Slavia, AC Sparta and  

 AC Praha.

Spring 1896.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
CFK Kickers	3	2	0	1	4	4	4
SK Slavia	3	1	1	1	6	2	3
AC Sparta*	2	1	1	0	3	1	3
AC Praha*	2	0	0	2	0	6	0

* After two defeats AC AC Praha withdrew and the match with Sparta was never played. 

Autumn 1896.

Kickers, who were heading for trouble, did not defend their titile, and their place in the Prague Quartet was taken by the club for Prague's German population- DFC Prag. DFC stood for Deutscher Fussball Club.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
DFC Prag	3	3	0	0	18	3	6
AC Sparta	3	2	0	1	7	3	4
AC Praha	3	1	1	0	2	4	3
SK Slavia	3	0	0	2	0	17	0

DFC averaged 6 goals a game in winning the title, whilst Slavia failed to score at all. 

Spring 1897.

Český Sculling CA (in fact CFK Kickers under a new name) took the place of AC Praha.  Sparta also withdrew and the 4th place went to Slavia reserves. The tournament took another turn for the worse when DFC withdrew without playing a match- the other teams were each awarded 2 points. Slavia (first team) secured their first title.

	P	W	D	L	F	A
SK Slavia	3	3	0	0	8	1	6
SK Slavia II	3	2	0	1	4	4	4
Český Sculling	3	1	0	2	0	7	2
DFC Prag

Autumn 1897.

Český Sculling provided 2 sides for the autumn tournament, which saw the return of Sparta. Not all results of this tournament are known. 

	P	W	D	L	F	A
SK Slavia	3	3	0	0	11	0	6
AC Sparta	3	2	0	1			4
Český Sculling	3	1	0	2			2
Český Sculling II	3	0	0	3			0

1898.

The first of the lean seasons- only Slavia and AC Praha entered the competition and a 2-0 win saw Slavia crowned champions.

Slavia 1898

1899

An even worse turn out- just Slavia entering- the firsts beat the reserves 6-1 to retain the title. 

1900 

A repeat performance- Slavia playing their own reserves for the championship. On this occasion they handed them a 9-1 drubbing. 

1901

The semblance of normality returned with a 4 team competition (Slavia providing 2) but the games were not completed. A debut season for the 2 year old ČAFC Vinohrady (now known as ČAFC Praha) and SK Union Žižkov.
Slavia beat their reserves 11-6 and then beat Union Žižkov 10-1. The one other match completed saw 

ČAFC Vinohrady beat Union Žižkov by a modest 2-1. The title was awarded to Slavia. 

1902

A remarkable leap forward. The competition which had been relying on just a handful of clubs for its survival now took the form of a two division league with 18 participants:


Group A: .CAFC Vinohrady A, AC Sparta SK Union Praha A,  Ceska vlajka Praha, FK Horymir Praha, AC Praha, SK Praha VII, Olympia Praha VII, SK Union Praha B, SK Viktoria Karlin, SK Viktoria Zizkov

Group B: AFK Karlin, CAFC Vinohrady B, Staromestsky SK, Cechie Karlin, SK Meteor Praha VIII, SK Urania Praha, SK Hradcany

The second placed teams in each group played off for 3rd place, ČAFC Vinohrady B beating Slavia 5-0.


The top 2 sides played a final. ČAFC Vinohrady A and AFK Karlín drew 2-2 . In the replay 

ČAFC Vinohrady  won 5-1.