2023–24 Czech First League

The 2023–24 Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st season of the Czech Republic's top-tier football for professional clubs since its establishment in 1993. Sparta Prague were the reigning champions. The season started in July 2023. The first half of the season had 19 rounds, finishing in December, and the other half commenced in February 2024. The season ended on 31 May 2024, with two extra play-out fixtures on 29 May and 2 June 2024.^[1]

Czech First League

Season	2023–24
Dates	22 July 2023 – 31 May 2024
Champions	Sparta
Relegated	Zlín
Champions League	Sparta, Slavia
Europa League	Plzeň
Conference League	Ostrava, Mladá Boleslav
Matches played	277
Goals scored	804 (2.9 per match)
Top goalscorer	Václav Jurečka (19 goals)
Biggest home win	Ostrava 6–0 Slovácko 26 May 2024
Biggest away win	Zlín 1–7 Plzeň 17 September 2023
Highest scoring	Zlín 5–9 Mladá Boleslav 21 October 2023
Longest winning run	Sparta (9 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Slavia (13 matches)
Longest winless run	Zlín & České Budějovice (8 matches)
Longest losing run	České Budějovice (7 matches)
Highest attendance	19,370 Slavia 1–1 Sparta 24 September 2023
Lowest attendance	783 Č. Budějovice 0–2 Hr. Králové 13 December 2023
Total attendance	1,782,387
Average attendance	6,435
← 2022–23 2024–25 →

In the 12th round, the highest number of goals in one game in the history of the Czech First League was seen in the match Zlín against Mladá Boleslav, which ended 5–9.^[2]

Format

The season format remained unchanged from last season, 16 clubs played each other home and away, until the league was split up in championship, Conference League and relegation groups. The lowest-ranked team was relegated directly to the second league, and the two teams positioned 14th and 15th played a play-off with two teams from the second league positioned 2nd and 3rd in a home and away format. This was the sixth season to use VAR, featuring it in all matches played. The only change in the rules was the limited number of players that could be sent on loan.^[1]

Teams

Prague

České Budějovice

Jablonec

Karviná

Liberec

Mladá Boleslav

Olomouc

Hradec Králové

Baník Ostrava

Viktoria Plzeň

Slovácko

Teplice

Zlín

Pardubice

Prague teams:
Bohemians 1905
Slavia Prague
Sparta Prague

Locations of the 2023–24 Czech First League teams

Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

A total of sixteen teams contested the league, including fifteen sides from the 2022–23 season and the winner of last season's second league.

Team promoted to Czech First League

After being relegated in the 2021–22 season, MFK Karviná returned to Czech First League as the champion of the 2022–23 Czech National Football League.^[3]

Teams relegated from Czech First League

The lowest positioned team from the last season, Zbrojovka Brno, was relegated to the Czech National Football League.

Locations and stadiums

Team Location Stadium Capacity Ref. Bohemians 1905 Prague Ďolíček 6,300 [4] SK Dynamo České Budějovice České Budějovice Stadion Střelecký ostrov 6,681 [5] FC Hradec Králové Hradec Králové Malšovická aréna 9,300 [6] FK Jablonec Jablonec nad Nisou Stadion Střelnice 6,108 [7] MFK Karviná Karviná Městský stadion (Karviná) 4,833 [8] FC Slovan Liberec Liberec Stadion u Nisy 9,900 [9] FK Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav Lokotrans Aréna 5,000 [10] SK Sigma Olomouc Olomouc Andrův stadion 12,474 [11] FC Baník Ostrava Ostrava Městský stadion (Ostrava) 15,123 [12] FK Pardubice Pardubice CFIG Arena 4,620 [13] FC Viktoria Plzeň Plzeň Doosan Arena 11,700 [14] SK Slavia Prague Prague Fortuna Arena 19,370 [15] 1. FC Slovácko Uherské Hradiště Městský fotbalový stadion Miroslava Valenty 8,000 [16] AC Sparta Prague Prague epet ARENA 18,944 [17] FK Teplice Teplice Na Stínadlech 18,221 [18] FC Zlín Zlín Letná Stadion 5,898 [19]

Rank Region Number of teams Club(s) 1 Prague 3 Bohemians 1905, Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague 2 Liberec 2 Jablonec, Slovan Liberec Moravian-Silesian Baník Ostrava, Karviná Zlín Zlín, Slovácko 5 Central Bohemian 1 Mladá Boleslav Hradec Králové Hradec Králové Olomouc Sigma Olomouc Pardubice Pardubice Plzeň Viktoria Plzeň South Bohemian Dynamo České Budějovice Ústí nad Labem Teplice

Managerial changes

Ahead of the season:

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Contract valid until
Hradec Králové	Miroslav Koubek[20]	End of contract	30 June 2023	Jozef Weber[21]	10 May 2023	Undisclosed
Viktoria Plzeň	Michal Bílek[22]			Miroslav Koubek[23]	5 June 2023	June 2024
Jablonec	David Horejš[24]	Sacked	29 May 2023	Radoslav Látal[25]	30 June 2023	Undisclosed
Mladá Boleslav	Pavel Hoftych[26]	Mutual consent	26 May 2023	Marek Kulič[26]	26 May 2023

During the season:

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Match-week	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Contract valid until
Hradec Králové	Jozef Weber[27]	Sacked	18 September 2023	8	11th	Václav Kotal[27]	18 September 2023	Undisclosed
Karviná	Tomáš Hejdušek[28]			8	15th	Juraj Jarábek[29]	27 September 2023
Zlín	Pavel Vrba[30]		23 October 2023	12	16th	Bronislav Červenka[30]	25 October 2023
České Budějovice	Marek Nikl[31]			15		None	None	None
	Tomáš Zápotočný[32]	Mutual consent	13 December 2023	18		Jiří Lerch[33]	13 December 2023	Undisclosed
Mladá Boleslav	Marek Kulič[34]	Sacked	30 December 2023	19	7th	David Holoubek[35]	2 January 2024	June 2028
Sigma Olomouc	Václav Jílek[36]		26 February 2024	22	8th	Jiří Saňák[36]	26 February 2024	Undisclosed
Hradec Králové	Václav Kotal[37]	Mutual consent	28 February 2024		12th	David Horejš[37]	28 February 2024
Karviná	Juraj Jarábek[38]	Sacked	12 March 2024	25	16th	Marek Bielan[39]	12 March 2024	June 2024

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sparta Prague	30	24	4	2	70	26	+44	76	Qualification for the Championship group
2	Slavia Prague	30	22	6	2	62	23	+39	72
3	Viktoria Plzeň	30	19	5	6	67	33	+34	62
4	Baník Ostrava	30	13	6	11	48	39	+9	45
5	Mladá Boleslav	30	12	8	10	50	46	+4	44
6	Slovácko	30	11	8	11	39	40	−1	41
7	Slovan Liberec	30	10	10	10	46	46	0	40	Qualification for the Play-off
8	Sigma Olomouc	30	10	7	13	40	45	−5	37
9	Hradec Králové	30	9	10	11	32	38	−6	37
10	Teplice	30	9	9	12	31	40	−9	36
11	Bohemians 1905	30	8	11	11	29	40	−11	35	Qualification for the Relegation group
12	Jablonec	30	6	12	12	35	45	−10	30
13	Pardubice	30	7	7	16	29	42	−13	28
14	Karviná	30	6	7	17	30	52	−22	25
15	Zlín	30	5	10	15	36	61	−25	25
16	České Budějovice	30	6	6	18	34	62	−28	24

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Fair-play ranking; 8) Draw.^[40]

Results

Home \ Away	BOH	CBU	HKR	JAB	KAR	LIB	MLA	OLO	OST	PCE	PLZ	SLA	SLO	SPA	TEP	ZLN
Bohemians 1905	—	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	3–2	1–1	2–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–3	1–2	0–0
České Budějovice	3–0	—	0–2	2–1	1–0	3–2	1–2	2–1	3–0	0–1	2–5	1–3	2–2	0–1	0–1	2–2
Hradec Králové	2–2	5–1	—	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–3	2–3	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–3	1–0	2–0
Jablonec	0–1	5–2	1–1	—	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–3	2–1	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–5	3–2	0–0
Karviná	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	—	5–2	1–2	0–2	1–3	0–3	0–0	0–3	1–3	0–3	0–1	4–1
Slovan Liberec	0–1	1–0	0–0	3–3	1–0	—	2–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	3–0	2–3	4–1	0–2	3–3	5–3
Mladá Boleslav	2–1	3–1	5–1	3–1	2–2	2–2	—	2–1	1–3	1–0	1–3	0–1	0–1	3–1	1–2	3–2
Sigma Olomouc	2–2	2–1	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	4–0	—	0–3	0–2	1–3	1–3	1–1	1–4	2–1	0–0
Baník Ostrava	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–1	2–2	2–2	2–0	1–2	—	1–1	0–1	2–3	0–0	0–1	4–1	5–1
Pardubice	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	0–1	—	2–3	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	0–1
Viktoria Plzeň	2–0	5–0	1–1	3–2	0–1	1–3	1–1	2–1	3–1	6–2	—	1–0	1–4	4–0	3–0	3–0
Slavia Prague	2–1	2–1	2–0	4–3	5–1	3–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	3–0	1–2	—	2–0	1–1	4–0	2–1
Slovácko	5–2	4–1	0–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	2–2	0–2	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–3	—	1–3	2–0	1–0
Sparta Prague	2–0	4–0	2–1	3–0	3–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	4–3	5–2	2–1	0–0	5–0	—	2–1	2–0
Teplice	1–1	2–2	0–1	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	—	2–1
Zlín	2–2	1–1	4–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	5–9	3–2	0–1	1–1	1–7	1–1	2–1	0–1	2–1	—

Source: Fortuna Liga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship group

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		SPA	SLA	PLZ	OST	MLA	SLO
1	Sparta Prague (C)	35	27	6	2	82	30	+52	87	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round		—	0–0	1–1	2–1	—	—
2	Slavia Prague	35	26	7	2	76	24	+52	85	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round[a]		—	—	3–0	5–0	4–0	—
3	Viktoria Plzeň	35	21	7	7	76	40	+36	70	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round		—	—	—	1–1	3–0	4–2
4	Baník Ostrava	35	14	7	14	56	48	+8	49	Qualification for the Conference League second qualifying round		—	—	—	—	0–1	6–0
5	Mladá Boleslav (O)	35	13	8	14	51	59	−8	47	Qualification for the Conference League play-off final		0–5	—	—	—	—	0–1
6	Slovácko	35	12	8	15	45	56	−11	44			2–4	1–2	—	—	—	—

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1) Total points; 2) Points earned in regular season; 3) Head-to-head points (regular season); 4) Head-to-head goal difference (regular season); 5) Head-to-head goals scored (regular season); 5) Goal difference (all matches); 6) Goals scored (all matches); 7) Fair-play ranking; 8) Draw.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners
Notes:

1. Since the Europa League winners, Atalanta qualified for the Champions League via league position, Slavia Prague were promoted from the Champions League second qualifying round to the third qualifying round as one of the two teams with the highest coefficient in the second qualifying round.

Conference League play-off

Teams placed between 7th and 10th position took part in the Conference League play-off. The play-off winner faced the fifth-placed team of the championship group to determine the Conference League play-off winners. The winners qualified for the second qualifying round of the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League.

	First round						Second round
	Teplice	2	2	4
	Slovan Liberec	0	1	1
							Teplice	0	0	0
							Hradec Králové	1	2	3
	Hradec Králové	3	3	6
	Sigma Olomouc	1	1	2

Final

31 May 2024 (2024-05-31)

18:00 CEST

Mladá Boleslav	3–1	Hradec Králové
Mareček 13' Kostka 45+1' Matĕjovský 54' (pen.)		Klíma  42' Čmelík 83'

Lokotrans Aréna, Mladá Boleslav

Attendance: 4,173

Referee: Ondřej Berka

Relegation group

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation		JAB	PCE	BOH	KAR	CBU	ZLN
11	Jablonec	35	9	14	12	45	50	−5	41			—	3–0	—	3–2	—	1–0
12	Pardubice	35	11	7	17	39	47	−8	40			—	—	—	4–0	3–2	2–0
13	Bohemians 1905	35	9	12	14	34	48	−14	39			1–1	0–1	—	1–3	—	—
14	Karviná (O)	35	8	8	19	38	62	−24	32	Qualification for the relegation play-offs		—	—	—	—	1–0	2–2
15	České Budějovice (O)	35	7	8	20	41	70	−29	29			2–2	—	2–1	—	—	—
16	Zlín (R)	35	5	12	18	40	69	−29	27	Relegation to FNL		—	—	1–2	—	1–1	—

Source: Fortuna Liga
Rules for classification: 1) Total points; 2) Points earned in regular season; 3) Head-to-head points (regular season); 4) Head-to-head goal difference (regular season); 5) Head-to-head goals scored (regular season); 5) Goal difference (all matches); 6) Goals scored (all matches); 7) Fair-play ranking; 8) Draw.
(O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Relegation play-offs

Teams placed 14th and 15th in the relegation group faced the teams placed 2nd and 3rd in the Czech National Football League for two spots in the next season.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Vyškov	0–2	Karviná	0–1	0–1
České Budějovice	3–2	Silon Táborsko	2–1	1–1

Season statistics

Top scorers

^[41]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Václav Jurečka	Slavia	19
2	Pavel Šulc	Plzeň	18
3	Jan Kuchta	Sparta	17
4	Veljko Birmančević		16
	Mojmír Chytil	Slavia
6	Ewerton	Ostrava	14
7	Lukáš Haraslín	Sparta	12
	Marek Havlík	Slovácko
	Lukáš Juliš	Olomouc
	Tomáš Chorý	Plzeň

Hat-tricks

Matchweek	Date	Player	For	Against	Result
4	13 August 2023	Pavel Šulc	Plzeň	České Budějovice	5–2 (A)[42]
18	9 December 2023	Marek Havlík4	Slovácko	Bohemians 1905	5–2 (H)[43]
22	25 February 2024	Mojmír Chytil	Slavia	Pardubice	3–0 (H)[44]
32	11 May 2024	Pavel Šulc	Plzeň	Slovácko	4–2 (H)[42]
34	18 May 2024	Jan Kuchta4	Sparta	Mladá Boleslav	5–0 (A)[45]
34	19 May 2024	Ladislav Krobot	Pardubice	Karviná	4–0 (H)[46]

Notes

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

Clean sheets

^[47]

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Martin Jedlička	Bohemians 1905 / Plzeň	13
2	Peter Vindahl	Sparta	12
3	Jiří Letáček	Ostrava	9
4	Milan Heča	Slovácko	8
	Jindřich Staněk	Plzeň / Slavia
	Aleš Mandous	Slavia
	Adam Zadražil	Hradec Králové
8	Jan Hanuš	Jablonec	7
9	Tomáš Grigar	Teplice	6
10	Pavol Bajza	Hradec Králové	5
	Hugo Jan Bačkovský	Liberec
	Dominik Holec	Karviná
	Antonín Kinský	Pardubice

See also

• 2023–24 Czech National Football League
• 2023–24 Czech Cup