About our club

Football began to be played in our village as early as 1920, when Mr Ferdinand Bukač came home from the First World War as a legionnaire and brought a football with him. From then on, football was played at “Potok”, behind “Stávek” and on the “Zelený rynk”.

In March 1936, at the initiative of Jan Kršňák, keen football supporters met to set up a sports organisation. Josef Elsner became chairman, František Badin vice-chairman, Jan Kršňák secretary and František Jindra treasurer; the committee members were Jan Dvořák, Maxmilián Cetl, Jůlius Schoř and František Schoř.

In September 1936 the provincial authority approved the new organisation under the name SK Moravské Bránice. The club then asked the village council to lease it the meadow below “Přejížďovna” to build a pitch. Unfortunately, the request was turned down, so the team trained on the “Zelený rynk” and travelled to their opponents’ grounds for matches.

At the beginning of 1937 the club rented the pitch below the cement works from the Dolní Kounice town committee for 150 crowns a year. That same year two requests to lease the meadow were submitted — both were rejected. Only in April 1938 was the plot finally allocated to the club. After a lot of hard work, the new pitch was officially opened at the beginning of August.

The joy did not last long: in spring 1939 the river Jihlava, running high, carved a new channel across the pitch. The spring half of the season was finished on the pitch in Silůvky. After this, the club accepted a plot from the village known as “Šutrovka”.

Building the new pitch took a great deal of work and worry, but with help from the ČSD railway track district, the village council and local residents, the playing area was prepared and officially opened on 11 October 1942.

During the occupation, cultural and social life in the village came to a standstill. The football teams had mixed results. Standards suffered because of the war, as Germany sent some of our players to forced labour as well. In the first half of 1945 there was almost no activity as the war came to an end. Only in the second half of the year did the established sports — football, volleyball and table tennis — pick up again.

In 1946–1947 interest in the Sports Club faded, and it ceased to exist at the end of 1947. In 1948 physical education and sport were merged into TJ Sokol.

In 1957 the football section was revived. The pitch was levelled and partly enlarged, a changing room for referees was built and an electricity connection was installed. The original enthusiasm began to wane in 1961, and as a result football stopped again in 1963.

Modern football in Moravské Bránice dates from 1973, when 19 players were registered. Changing rooms were made from disused DS Olomouc workers’ hostels. The pitch was levelled once again and new railings were put up behind the goals.

A pupils’ team was formed in 1974 and a youth team in 1977. The 1979–1980 season was a success for the first team, bringing 1st place in the district and promotion to the III. třída league.

In 1983 work began on new changing rooms — the foundations were dug and concreted, then the ground floor was built with four changing rooms, showers and toilets, followed by an upper floor with a clubroom and a terrace. The work lasted until 1988. Football, of course, carried on alongside the building work.

In 1991 a restaurant was set up in the clubroom and leased out. Since 1994 the ground has been rented to DFC Ivančice. We also began collecting scrap iron in the village in an organised, systematic way. All of this brought — and still brings — considerable sums into the club’s funds.

In 1995 design work began on an irrigation system for the playing surface. It was built in 1997 and 1998 and approved for use in 1999. With the irrigation in place, the club started investing substantial sums in restoring the grass. A new mower, bought in 2001, also helped the quality of the pitch.

During 2003 and 2004 the irrigation system was completely rebuilt. Everything is controlled automatically by a computer unit, and the sprinklers are set into the ground beneath the pitch. The pitch was ploughed up and reseeded. The old changing-room building was given a facelift, and work started on a new referees’ changing room above the cellar. The changing rooms and the pitch were officially reopened in autumn 2005.