Lights Go Out at Teplice Stadium During Match Against Slavia — Game Halted for a Quarter of an Hour

During a Czech first-league football match between Teplice and Prague's Slavia, the floodlights suddenly went out at the Na Stínadlech stadium. Play had to be suspended for at least fifteen minutes, while more than thirteen thousand fans in the stands switched on their phone flashlights, as is customary at concerts.

The lights at the arena went out gradually — individual sections of the floodlights first flickered, then went dark one by one. Referee Ondřej Berka quickly sent both teams to the locker rooms rather than have them wait it out on the pitch.

The cause: a voltage drop in the power grid

According to an official statement from Teplice, the stoppage was caused by a voltage drop in the electrical grid. Once the fault occurred, the stadium's lighting system couldn't simply be switched back on — it needed time to cool down before the floodlights could be restarted.

"The outage was caused by a voltage drop in the power grid. Afterwards, the lighting system had to be left to cool for a while — it can't be switched on instantly. Once it had cooled, we were able to restart the lights and resume the match," the club said in its official statement. Teplice also noted that they intend to file a complaint with the electricity supplier over the quality of the voltage in the distribution network and demand an explanation for the failure.

An awkward break for the league leaders

Antonín Rosa, an expert for the sports channel Oneplay Sport, noted that such unplanned pauses can affect the course of a game. "Stoppages like these, similar to commercial water breaks, can end up helping one team or the other. Players lose their rhythm, and the risk of injury increases. For Slavia, with their packed schedule, this wasn't the most convenient moment for it," the expert said.

Things got worse for the Prague club during the match itself, as Slavia's injury list grew further when forward Mojmír Chytil failed to return for the second half.

A similar blackout has happened before in the Czech top flight — in November 2023, also in Teplice, where the home side went on to beat Mladá Boleslav 1:0. Curiously, that match was also officiated by the same referee, Ondřej Berka.

Source: sport.cz