About Czech First League
Czech First League History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The Czech First League, also known as the Fortuna Liga for sponsorship reasons, is the top flight of professional football in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1993 following the dismantling of Czechoslovakia and currently features 16 teams.
The Fortuna Liga season generally runs from August through May. Each team plays each other twice (once at home and once away), and all teams featuring in the Fortuna Liga are eligible to take part in the Czech Cup. Like many other leagues worldwide, the Fortuna Liga operates on a relegation-promotion system, with a set number of lowest-ranking teams being relegated to the Czech National Football League (the second tier) while a set number of teams from the second tier are promoted to the Fortuna Liga.
Depending on a team’s position in the table at the end of each Fortuna Liga season, it will be eligible to compete in one of three European competitions: the UEFA Champions League, the Europa League, or the Europa Conference League.
Sparta Prague, Slavia Prague, Viktoria Plzeň, and Slovan Liberec are among the most successful teams in Fortuna Liga history.
In the Czech Republic, Fortuna Liga games were first covered by public broadcaster Česká Televize before paid-TV provider Nova Sport acquired media rights in the mid-1990s. From 1993 to around 2014, media rights alternated between Česká televize and Nova Sport before O2 TV secured and then renewed its TV broadcast rights in a multi-year deal starting from 2014. Matches have also been live-streamed via OneFootball since 2022.
Additionally, OneFootball also provides live-streaming coverage of the Fortuna Liga in multiple countries outside the Czech Republic.
