The Bohemians Supporters’ Trust (DFB) with the company AFK Vršovice made another important step on the long journey to the restoration of Bohemians football club to its former glory. On May 27, 2005, Mr. Steinbroch, director of the new club, filed on behalf of the club an application with the Czech Football Association for participation in the third league in the 2005/06 season. The application states the name of the new club as AFK Vršovice. Why AFK Vršovice, you may ask. Well, it’s a long story but we are hopefully nearing its end.
When Mr. Vejsada (the last owner of Bohemians before the club sank into the bankruptcy) realized that his hare-brained scheme to save Bohemians by merging with the Opava football club was destined to a failure, he turned his attention to another, similarly “brilliant”, scheme. He came up with an idea of re-naming the third division Prague club FC Střížkov to Bohemians Praha. He reasoned that that way he would avoid responsibility for all obligations accumulated by previous owners of Bohemians. He called the old Bohemians “a wagon full of crap.” The Czech Football Association did not see it that way and sent unofficial signals that it would not fall for this trick and would not approve the name change.
In order to get the name and logo of Bohemians for his new club, Mr. Vejsada contacted TJ Bohemians. TJ Bohemians is an umbrella organization that looks after about 24 different sport organization, e.g., wrestling, volleyball, swimming, tennis, etc., operating under the common name of Bohemians Praha. TJ Bohemians owns the rights to Bohemians name and logo, a somewhat ironic situation, as it was the football club of Bohemians that is no longer part of TJ Bohemians, which gave birth to the Bohemians name and its logo. TJ Bohemians tentatively approved Mr. Vejsada’s request. To be fair, this happened in February this year when the success of DFB efforts to save the “old” Bohemians was far from certain. Mr. Vejsada went immediately on the attack against both DFB and AFK Vršovice claiming that they have no legal rights to use the name Bohemians. He stated that his re-named club is the right Bohemians club. This upset many loyal fans who threw their unconditional support (and their money) behind the DFB salvage action.
To put his point across, Mr. Vejsada even agreed to participate in a TV talk show about the dispute. He was facing the former star goalie and coach of Bohemians, Mr. Zdeněk Hruška, the vice chairman of DFB, Mr. Jiří Dienstbier and a lawyer of the Czech Football Association, Mr. Petr Doležal. Mr. Vejsada’s unpolished, loutish performance on this TV show was in dark contrast with a professional and eloquent performance of other participants. Mr. Vejsada seemed out of place, looking like a country bumpkin at the opera. Moreover, his arguments were so weak that even his ardent supporters (if any) must have been tempted to throw in the towel.
The DFB/AFK directorate appealed to TJ Bohemians to reverse its decision in regards to the name and logo and grant it to the club that rightfully deserves it. Given that Mr. Vejsada has quite a few good friends at TJ Bohemians from his days as a world class wrestler who had done a lot for the club’s reputation, the battle seemed to be an uphill one. To everyone’s, except Mr. Vejsada’s, pleasant surprise, TJ Bohemians postponed its decision until it receives an official statement from the Czech Football Association (CMFS). This statement should clearly stipulate which club is considered the “right” FC Bohemians by the CMFS. This is a foregone conclusion as the CMFS stated in their press releases that it considers the DFB/AFK club to be a successor of the “old” Bohemians football club. The CMFS executive committee’s next meeting is scheduled for June 2, 2005.
It appears that the honest approach and hard work of DFB/AFK boys will pay off even in this case. They have done a tremendous amount of work. They have started the whole salvage movement which rallied fans behind the rescue operation of the club. The money collection among fans and sympathizers of the club has been organized. This was complemented by concerts and performances that were organized in support of DFB/AFK efforts. They purchased what remained of the “old” club (youth teams, successor rights and obligations) from the bankruptcy trustee. They have negotiated the payment of outstanding debts with the vast majority of creditors.
We have chosen the honest approach to the problem. We like our “old” club; we don’t consider it “a wagon full of crap.” We don’t want to dump it; we just want to restore its name and reputation by being upfront and facing problems rather than running away from them. And that’s why we believe we deserve the Bohemians name and logo back.
And as far as Mr. Vejsada is concerned, we have one piece of advice for him: Your misguided “help” is not needed, go away and stay away.
