Prague derby entrusted to referee who has taken charge of just one match this season

The refereeing committee of the Czech football league, headed by Spanish official Carlos Clos Gomes, has appointed referee Radim Machálek for Sunday's Prague derby between Sparta and Slavia — a choice that has surprised many. This season, the 40-year-old referee has taken charge of just one league match as the main referee — a wild encounter between Teplice and Plzeň that ended 5:5.

Besides that, this campaign he has only overseen two youth league matches, one MOL Cup fixture and one second-division game. Last season, Machálek refereed just four first-league matches as the main official, and among the Prague giants he only took charge of Sparta — in their 2:1 home win over Hradec Králové in the final round of the championship group, when the result no longer mattered for either side.

A VAR scandal in the past

His performance (alongside colleagues at the video review) drew considerable attention in February, in a match where Baník beat Liberec 1:0 away from home. On that occasion, Machálek did not send off home player Michal Hlavatý, but after a VAR review he did dismiss Hlavatý's teammate Jan Mikula, while Hlavatý's foul on Tomáš Rigo went unpunished. According to the referees' committee's official statement, it was indeed a case of foul play, and Liberec should have finished the match with nine men.

Following that incident, Machálek did not take charge of another first-league match as the main referee for the rest of the season — he only worked three times as part of the VAR team.

Experienced, but rarely handles top matches

Despite this, Machálek is one of the most experienced referees in Czech football: he is now in his thirteenth season officiating in the league, having taken charge of 114 matches, averaging 3.9 yellow cards per game and issuing a red card roughly once every five matches. His penalty statistics are similarly consistent. Over his career, he has refereed Sparta 17 times and Slavia 11 times, yet Sunday's derby at Letná will mark his first-ever appearance in this fixture.

The match kicks off at 20:00. He will be assisted on the line by Jaroslav Kubr and Jiří Kříž, while the video assistant referee system will be handled by Jiří Adam and Michal Kvítek.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz