Slovan Velvary

Winning the 3. Liga Group A in 2023/2024 was not, for Slovan Velvary, the start of a march upward. The club spent the following season in that same tier before being relegated back down to Divize B, and that swing between the third and fourth levels of Czech football says more about the size of the club than any table position does.

What Velvary is remembered for beyond league placings happened in the MOL Cup. In the 2021/2022 edition they went 2–0 up on Slavia Prague, before the game slipped away from them — but not before they had already knocked out Baník Ostrava and Pardubice. Two seasons later they went further still, beating Sellier & Bellot Vlašim on penalties to reach the Round of 16, where Slezský FC Opava ended the run 2–1.

The club was founded in 1919, the founding meeting held in an inn hall in Velvary that now houses the town's arts school, and it has carried the Sokol-era name Slovan through the different eras of Czech club organisation since. Locally, the fixture that matters most is against Sokol Hostouň, a Kladno district derby with a reputation for goals and needle on both sides.

Martin Zeman arrived at Velvary in 2024 with a Czech U21 cap and league titles already behind him from spells at Sparta Prague and Viktoria Plzeň, a rare pedigree for a club at this level. Before him it was Jaroslav Kafka who carried the team through its cup runs, four seasons in blue and white before he moved on to SK Kladno.