2025/26 winter stocktake: FK Pardubice

It’s hard to think of a club in recent memory that would sit 7 points off the direct relegation spot, like Pardubice do now, yet still head into the spring in such high spirits as the Eastern Bohemian organization — armed with a new sporting director transitioning from the same role at a freaking Slavia (much recommend Jiří Bílek’s refreshing interview for Liga Naruby, btw), who’s in sync with the new-ish head coach Jan Trousil, his former teammate from lower tiers, and supported by a rich owner. For now, I’ll stop short of calling FK Pardubice an emerging mid-table staple, but they could very well be on the way.

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2025/26 team preview: FK Pardubice

When FK Pardubice announced their RESTART last summer, this is most certainly not what they had in mind. Gone is the main sponsor after which the arena was named, head coach, sporting director, technical director/director of recruitment and chairman from that time; though in the case of the latter, Vít Zavřel — promoted in his place — insists Vladimír Pitter still “works the same way he used to”, whatever the hell that means. Granted, the initiative rather targeted a shift in visual identity or fan engagement, but even on that front, “maybe the font has changed” was one of my consultant’s sarcastic response. Most notably on the fan engagement side, the club has succeeded in uniting all the fans against itself.

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