Hašek: Nedvěd Kept Tripping Me Up as National Team Coach

Former head coach of the Czech national football team Ivan Hašek has said that the leadership of Czech football — first and foremost Pavel Nedvěd, general manager of the national teams — got in the way of his work. He said this in an interview with Radiožurnál on the eve of the national team's opening match in the new UEFA Nations League campaign.

Hašek recalled the pivotal match on 12 October last year, when the Czechs unexpectedly lost to underdogs the Faroe Islands. Already on the flight back from Tórshavn, he realized that it had been his last match in charge of the national team. A year on, he still has a bitter aftertaste.

Grievances against Nedvěd

"Judging by how we communicated, I'm not sure he actually wanted me to be the one to lead the team to the World Cup. That's not how it felt to me. He never once travelled to a match with us together with the coaching staff. And then I'd see him sitting in the stands with Mr Koubek, or now with Dénia. That's a significant difference," Hašek remarked.

According to him, despite his promises, Nedvěd hardly ever consulted him on the squad for individual matches. "If he came into my office two or three times in all that time, that's already a lot," the former coach added.

What He Thinks of the New Squad

Despite the disagreements, Hašek has not turned his back on the national team and continues to follow the performances of his former players, as well as those who never played under him. Commenting on the squad called up for the start of the Nations League, he admitted that it is now harder for him to assess some of the players, since he has seen them in action far less often than during his own time in charge of the team.

"This is the squad coach Dénia believes in, and time will tell whether it works out or not. In my view, it's short on young players. It's a shame, for instance, that Hugo Sohoúrek isn't playing — the squad ended up made up mostly of players of middling age. And the upcoming matches are very tough, which could have helped young players develop," Hašek noted.

It is precisely the Spanish specialist — the first foreign coach ever to lead the Czech national team — whose appointment is stirring debate among part of the football community. "The Spanish are world champions, and he has experience with a national team, though not so much in senior football. This is a bet on a foreign coach, and to my mind, a rather expensive one. A lot of money has been paid for it, but we'll see what it brings. Right now it's impossible to predict whether the effect will be positive," said the former head coach of the national team.

He also stressed that he does not consider the Czech coaching school weak: "There are enough coaches here who could make it abroad too, but the attitude towards them — both at home and abroad — isn't the best. We could have found specialists at home capable of leading the national team, and for far less money."

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz