EMF EUROCUP starts in Hungary with four Czech representatives

One fifth of the participants of the second most prestigious European club competition in small football are Czech teams. The EMF EUROCUP will take place in Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary, from Thursday to Sunday and will feature BKMK Brno, Royal Flush Brno, Ostravský Zábřeh and RK Kafki Olomouc.

BKMK, who have already played in the Champions League, are considered the most experienced Czech ambassadors. “I take the tournament on equal weight. I have a good feeling about our team, in my opinion we are probably in the best line-up of all the tournaments we have gone to so far,” said Jaroslav Bobcik, president of the Brno club.

In Group B they will face Slovak To-Day Prešov, Ben Dor Nesher from Israel, Farao Butor from Nyíregyháza, Hungary and HNH Klausenburg from Cluj, Romania.

“I’ve looked through some of their matches that I could find, but I don’t know much about them. If these clubs got there, they certainly have quality, the Slovaks don’t look bad either. We want to win the group and go as far as possible in the play-offs,” Bobcik added.

The second Brno club is a newcomer to the big international event, where it reached the quarterfinals of the Czech National Cup.

“We are all aware that such a possibility may not happen again, it will be hard to dig up a participation in the National Cup at all. We went to Hungary because some of the teams before us didn’t want to go, but when we were so lucky we said we would go,” said Royal Flush president Roman Novotný.

In Group A, AKMF Stupovi from Podgorica, Montenegro, Ankier Niedrzwica from Poland, Virgin Pulse Tuzla from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Energy Friends from Sighișoara, Romania, will face each other.

“At first glance the opponents don’t mean anything to us, we googled something and found out that the Romanian team won the national cup out of sixty-four teams. There will be a big force there and we are curious to see if we will be competitive. We only have three guys from the A team, otherwise a lot from the B team, but we left with the best we could,” Novotny said.

Ostrava’s Zábřeh, a bronze medallist in the Czech National Cup, also has plenty of experience in European competitions. “We are going with the same line-up we had at the national championship, which I think we should have won. Our ambitions are the same in all tournaments, we take the promotion as a matter of course and we want to go as far as possible. We are talking about Sunday’s final, we can’t have any other ambitions,” said Ostrava president René Bulař.

In Group D, his team will play against West Ham Altamura from Italy, Szilasi Es Baratai from Budapest, Hungary, Valter-Grbavci from Podgorica, Montenegro and FC Boromir from Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania. Although the EMF EUROCUP will play only twenty teams instead of the originally planned forty-eight, the competition is not considered to be weaker.

“I think that the journey through the tournament will definitely not be easier. There are the same strong teams that we know, they are still spinning at these tournaments,” Bulař reflected on the opponents.

The Moravian line-up in Hungary is completed by RK Kafki Olomouc. “Our basic goal is to advance from the group and play as long as possible. The nomination got a little bit messed up at the last minute, three guys dropped out, but we still have twelve players and we have ambitions to go as far as possible,” said Rudolf Pola, the club’s president.

Kafki will face teams KS Browarek from Warsaw, Poland, Kamenica Fun Cup from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Fekcentrum from Debrecen, Hungary, and Nova Vita from Târgu Mureș, Romania, in Group C.

“We have no idea who we are going to face, but the Romanians will definitely be strong. We’ve been preparing for the tournament and we’ll go through our rehearsed stuff, either it will work or it won’t. We have played some matches and won everything with a high score, hopefully that will continue in Hungary,” Pola hoped.