Žďár nad Sázavou

Promotion out of Divize C in 1982/83 was the result that lifted ŽďAS into the second tier of Czechoslovak football, the II. ČNFL. It followed a Jihomoravský krajský přebor title the season before, so the club went up two levels in successive years. Once there, it stayed for a good stretch: fifth place in 1987/88 and again in 1989/90 remains its best finish in that league.

The club began in 1925 as SK Žďár nad Sázavou and changed its name several times as the country around it changed. It was DSO Spartak in 1953, TJ Spartak in 1957, and TJ ŽĎAS from 1962. Since 1995 it has been FC ŽĎAS, still in black and white, with a home kit of white shirts and black stripes.

Karel Dvořák, born in 1949, took his first steps in football here. He went on to Dukla Prague and Zbrojovka Brno, won caps for Czechoslovakia and was part of the side that took the European Under-23 title in 1972. Michal Kadlec, a defender born in 1976, came through the youth system and later played for FC Vysočina Jihlava.

The Moravian-Silesian Football League (MSFL) has seen the club twice, in 1991–1993 and again in 2012–2014. The second spell came straight after a Divize D title in 2011/12. Local derbies are played against FC PBS Velká Bíteš and SFK Vrchovina Nové Město na Moravě. Bouchalky, the ground, holds 6,000, and today the team plays in the fourth tier.

All of it traces back to the 1925 sports club that first put a team on the pitch in Žďár nad Sázavou.