Zlin

Zlín took shape in 1919 as SK Zlín. Tomáš Baťa had built his footwear empire there, and the club grew up around the factory workforce.

And there were many. A 1947 match-fixing scandal got the club thrown out of the league altogether. Then came the merger years: Spartak and Jiskra combined in 1958 into TJ Gottwaldov. The town had been renamed after the country's communist leader in 1949. The club played as Gottwaldov through four decades of the regime, and it was under that name, in 1970, that it went furthest in Europe — a Cup Winners' Cup run ended by PSV. That same year it lifted the Czechoslovak Cup. Only in 1989, once the regime fell and the town reclaimed its old name, did the club become SK Zlín again — the first of several rebrandings driven less by politics than by sponsorship, as Svit, Tescoma, Fastav and later Trinity Bank each put their names on the shirt before the club settled back to plain FC Zlín in 2023.

The best Czech-era finish came in 2016/17, sixth place, and the following season the club reached the Europa League group stage after winning the Czech Cup and the Czechoslovak Super Cup — modest silverware by continental standards, but the high point of Zlín's independent existence. Tomáš Poznář remains the club's record scorer in the Czech top flight, with 48 goals, while goalkeeper Stanislav Dostál holds the appearance record. After relegation, the club won the second tier in 2024/25 and returned to the top division.

They still play in yellow and blue at the Letná stadium, a ground that holds under 6,000 — modest, like the town that gave the club its trade and its nickname a century ago.