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5.1 Introduction

According to the Czech Statistical Office there were 10,562,214 inhabitants living in the Czech Republic in 2011.Footnote 1 In the first half of the twentieth century, the population growth was rather small. It reached its peak during the Second World War, when the number slightly exceeded 11 million people. After the Second World War, on the contrary, the population decreased by about two million inhabitants (mainly due to the expulsion of the German population). Since 2000 the Czech Republic is divided into 13 regions and exists as the unitary state. The administrative hierarchy is the Czech Government, regions and municipalities. The Czech Republic is a secular state. In 2011 it was declared that only 20.6 % of people were believers and only 13.9 % were reported to be officially recognized by the Church. Half of the believers are the Roman Catholic. The ethnic structure of the population is homogenous—nearly 95 % are Czechs.

5.2 History and Context

An important source of information about the current situation in sport clubs was a Master’s thesis of Marek Palma: The Economics of Sports Clubs in Czech Republic, University of Economics Prague and Faculty Business Administration (2014). Palma did a survey only in the Pilsen region and had a problem with the willingness of clubs to cooperate. The questionnaire he applied was anonymous and contained out of 30 questions. The aim of the questionnaire was to get information about the economic situation of sports clubs in the Pilsen region. Research sub-objectives were to explore the relationships between clubs and local municipalities, the importance of related finance resources for clubs, the use of grant programs from public budgets, membership fees and management of clubs. After removal of faulty questionnaires there were 60 valid questionnaires left to analyse. The typical sports clubs have a legal form of a citizen association based in a small village with a thousand of inhabitants, either focusing on football as the sport sector or an identical situation with clubs operating in several sports sectors/disciplines, which often include a football club.

Since 2000, the Czech sports clubs are facing two main problems, both associated with deep political and social changes, which occurred in 1990. Firstly, it was a decrease of the birth index with lower share of youth in the population and secondly, it was the bankruptcy of the lottery company SAZKA, which was one of the main sources of financing amateur’s sports in the Czech Republic.

Lottery company SAZKA was established on 15 September 1956 as a state company. The main tasks were the operation of betting on sports results. A year later it was cooperating with the newly established and unified amateur organisation ČSTV. The whole profit of this business was used for funding the sport in Czechoslovakia. In 1992, SAZKA was transformed into a joint stock company, with its owners being civic associations active in the field of sports and physical education. These shareholders were the Czech Association of Physical Education (ČSTV) with 68 % share, Czech Sokol Organisation (owning 13.5 %), the Czech Association Sport for All (ČASPV, 5.55 %), Autoklub Czech Republic (4 %), Association of Sports Federations Czech Republic (3.55 %), Czech Olympic Committee (2 %), Czech Shooting Federation (1.5 %), Association of Sports Clubs Czech Republic (1 %) and Orel (0.9 %) (SAZKA 2010). The main problems of SAZKA were managerial failures during the build-up of the largest sports arena in the Czech Republic in 2004. The failures resulted in the inability to pay back the loans used for financing the construction of the arena and meet its financial commitments towards the sports associations. The bankruptcy of SAZKA in 2011 and the subsequent amendment of the Act no. 202/1990 Sb. on lotteries and other similar games in 2012 were major problems for sports clubs. The amendment of law has changed the distribution of proceeds from gambling from 2012 on and has negatively affected the Czech sports—even more than the fall of the company SAZKA itself. According to the amendment, the Ministry of Finance started sending the yields from the taxation from gambling in the Czech Republic directly to the municipalities. Sports organisations as CUS and Czech Olympic Committee were omitted from the distribution of the funds for sports clubs. Analysis has shown that municipalities in 2012 improved by 6.1 billion CZK. The comparison with the previous year indicated an increase of the budget of municipalities by about 4.3 billion CZK. Municipalities had provided grants for sport clubs in the same volume as years ago. At least Czech sports environment lost two billion CZK per year, which could previously count the sport for its activity. For sport clubs that is a hard impact.Footnote 2 In combination with a decrease in the number of young people that is a hard blow with a negative impact to the development of the member’s base.

5.3 Origin of Sports Clubs

Amateur sports clubs began to emerge in the territory of the present Czech Republic (meaning Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) in the second half of the nineteenth century. Everything was related to the revolutionary period in 1848 in Europe. With the slackening of social relations in this territory the industry began to develop rapidly and strongly and started to develop a middle class.

Sport has become a tool of emancipation for the newly emerging middle class population in the Czech lands. It was a multinational territory, where people mainly spoke Czech and German. The greatest share was represented by the Catholic religion, followed by the Evangelical and Jewish religions in a smaller scale. Before the World War II the Czech, German and Jewish sports clubs coexisted in the given territory. After the war until now there were only Czech clubs in the territory of Czechoslovakia. In 1993, the republic was split to the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

The first impulses for founding amateur sports clubs came from the German-speaking population living in Prague. Therefore, the first sports club was founded by Prague Germans. A few months later, on 16 February 1862 the first Czech amateur sport club Sokol Pražský was established. The statutes of the club have been processed under the German model. This sports club was the basis for the emergence of the sports association Sokol; clubs that were implemented in this organisation had been oriented in their programs on the versatility in the spirit of the ancient Greek kalokagathia. The content of the activity was mainly based on physical exercises, the spread of education and enlightenment among the population and singing and playing the theatre with building of the local Sokol libraries. The activity of the association was socially very affluent. Sokol did not agree with sports competition, which emerged at the time, especially from England. The foundation of Sokol Pražský was followed by residents in other towns and villages—first in Bohemia, and a little later in Moravia and Silesia. In 1865 there were already 25 Sokol clubs and by 1871 there were already 131 organisations. Sokol movement continued to establish new clubs across the whole territory of Habsburg monarchy, where Slavic peoples lived. The process was facilitated by the adoption of the Federal Act in 1867 No. 167 in the Reich, which is still valid in Austria. Česká obec sokolská (ČOS) as the head organisation of Sokol clubs was founded only in 1889 with headquarters in Prague.

A group of unsatisfied gymnasts went away from the Sokol federation. On 22 August 1897 the first Workers Gymnastics Club was founded as a maternal club. Another sports federation on the same basis as Sokol was established, but this one did focus on the working class. It was the second type of the sport federation in the Czech territory.

The third similar sports federation was Orel. Formally, it was founded on the initiative of the Catholic Church in 1909. Orel with about 35,000 members in 1931 represented the second largest sports organisation in the former Czechoslovakia. The Orel built its basics on the Christian principles and is mainly dedicated to Sport for All and youth work.

Until the beginning of the Second World War, the trend in clubs was to bear national ideology and emancipatory efforts of the Czech society against the German part of the Austro—Hungarian Empire and later Germany.

The second trend in the development of sports clubs, which emerged later and was inspired mainly by the English concept of sports, was a focus on sports performance. The first purely sporting club in the country—disregarded of Moravia—can be considered as Utraquist Eisklub Prager Verein, established in 1868. In 1872 it merged with Prager Ruderclub Regatta (founded 1870). This meant that Utraquist was a Czech-German sports club. The first Czech sport club of English type was founded as a rowing club Blesk, which started its sport activity in 1875 and exists until now. Major development of sport clubs occurred after 1880. For example, 1880: Smíchovský ČKV (Smíchovský Czech club Velocipede), 1890: Athletic Club Praha, 1891: Český ski klub Praha (Czech Ski Club Prague), 1892: SK Slavia Praha (football), 1893: 1. Český Lawn Tenis Klub (1. Czech Lawn Tenis Club) and 1893: Český Yacht Klub (Czech Yacht Club). Klub Českých turistů (KČT), in English the Czech Tourist Club, dates back to the year 1888, when the club was founded by a group of Czech patriots around Vojta Náprstek. Formed in 1888, the club really began going trail-marking.

Before the Second World War in Czechoslovakia there were about 120,000 sports clubs with nearly two million members. However, it is difficult to judge the accuracy of the data. The best records of its members had Sokol (and it was close to one million members). Other sports associations usually estimated the number of its members based upon the occasion of significant anniversaries of their founding. After war the number of clubs has decreased. It was the result of post-war development in Czechoslovakia, especially after 1948 and the unification of all sports associations under one single sports organisation. After the split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, only the Czech Republic has about 14,000–16,000 of sports clubs, but probably at the time the number was lower (about 11,000 sports clubs). In a difficult system of relationships of sports federations some sports sections of clubs were certainly included as separated sport clubs.

There were only amateur sports clubs until 1989 with a classic structure of club governance with registration members. Members do pay yearly membership fees and are part of the clubs’ highest authority assembly. The general membership meeting elects the club bureau with a president and the Audit Commission. For the administration of the club it is important to have secretary and a treasurer or an economist. Only the largest Czech clubs have professionals workers on these positions, but in most cases such functions are being covered by volunteers. These principles are followed even nowadays.

Until 1948 there was a pluralistic system of sports associations; from 1949 to 1990 we had unitary system under one head federation. Since 1948 it began to enforce particular orientation towards sports performance. Since 1956 the name of this federation was Československý svaz tělesné výchovy (ČSTV), in English: Czechoslovak Sport Association. Now the pluralistic system is in place again. In the present system, the free organised set of sport in the Czech Republic is applied and clubs are organised in different sports federations. There are several clubs, which are independent (are not subordinated under any of the existing sports federations). Since 1990 the activities of sports associations such as Sokol or Orel were reestablished and the Czech Association Sport for All (ČASPV) was newly founded. These associations are more focused on all-round development of man.

All the sports clubs focused on sports performance in their sports associations are under the umbrella association Czech Sports Association (CSTV). In 2013 it was renamed to Česká Unie sportu (ČUS), in English: Czech Union of Sport. It is the biggest sport organisation with 74 sports or sports branches and is the biggest owner of sports facilities in the Czech Republic. Currently, the clubs have major problems with financing of sports facilities and therefore they try to convert those into municipal ownership. The clubs are mainly oriented for competitive sports.Footnote 3

Sokol is the second biggest umbrella sports association. After 40 years the activity has been resumed in 1990. Sokol exercise was and still is addressed for everybody and most the clubs can be categorised as traditional sports clubs. It develops motoric skills—speed, strength, agility and endurance exercisers, learn to win and lose, do not give up when you fail and not to be afraid. Sokol has sport sections too; there are 57 sports overall. Sokol is the second largest owner of sports facilities in the Czech Republic after ČUS.

Česká asociace sport pro všechny (ČASPV), in English: Czech Association Sport for All, is the head sports federation and was established as a new association from 1992. The federation aim is (through physical education and sport) to keep people fit while they relax from daily worries. Therefore, the physical activity should be appropriately challenging to develop the young body and for elderly to maintain its function at an optimal level. They offer their members a varied selection of effective physical activities: general gymnastics, recreational sports, aerobics, rhythmic gymnastics, yoga, health physical education, psychomotor, exercise and outdoor activities, dance sport, step, exercise for preschool children, training parents with children, etc. ČASPV is not an owner of sport facilities. The relevant clubs are traditional sports clubs.

Klub českých turistů (KČT), in English: Czech Tourist Club, got out of union ČSTV and began to function independently since 1993. Many of these clubs are departments and operate in other umbrella federations. The association maintains and marks all hiking trails. The club really began going trail-marking after the World War II. Today more than 40,000 km of marked routes maintained by 1,350 volunteers are available. The club also coordinates the bike and skiing trails across the country. Today the hiking trails are still maintained by Czech Tourist Club members on a voluntary basis. KČT is owner of a few mountain tourist lodges.

Orel is an other sports association, a Christian sports organisation. After 40 years the activity has been resumed in 1990. The aim is to educate young people and children through sports and other activities. It is not the objective to educate the world champions; their goal is to pursue a sport that promotes positive human qualities—a sport that is fair, respecting opponents and teammates. Orel owns a range of sports facilities and gyms. The relevant clubs are traditional sports clubs.

Asociace tělovýchovných jednot a sportovních klubů (ATJSK), in English: Association of Sports Clubs, is the smallest umbrella organisation and was established as a new association from 1990. The clubs are mainly oriented for competitive sports.

In the Czech Republic, there are also many other single federations, but those are smaller and only have dozens of clubs. One of the biggest is Autoklub České republiky (AČR)—officially it is impossible to find any information about statistics of members and clubs of the federation. According to the information from the Ministry of Education the number was about 20,000 members.

5.4 Role of Sport Clubs in Policy and Society

5.4.1 Troubles with the Registration of Members and Clubs

Each sports association in the Czech Republic has its own registry. It performs an educational role here, and in particular also a social role in a rural society. It is therefore a difficult comparison between the systems. Since the scope is on amateur sport clubs and volunteers are carrying out most of the administrative work, the quality and topciality has to be considered sometimes as problematic. They differ in the details of evidence, and terminology is not uniform. ČUS (formerly ČSTV) has the longest time series of the numbers and structure of members. Its records are from the mid-1960s and are relatively consistent. The most accurate information is from the period of socialism, i.e. up to 1989. Thanks to the fact that it was the only overarching sports organisation for the whole Czechoslovakia, there were no duplications or triplications in the registry of members. A member was firstly registered in the parent sports club (e.g. a football section in the club) and in case he or she was active in other sports section, such as an ice hockey, he or she only had a hosting in the second section of the club or other club. Identification of the members was by birth numbers and, therefore, the member could not be counted twice to the total number of members of the sports organisation in Czechoslovakia. Under the present system it does not work that way. For example, the Ministry of Education presented a number of 2.7 million of registered members, but it has been severely distorted by duplicity and triplicates. The number was also significantly increased by the so-called inactive members, who were registered, but do not pay membership fees (so they did only inflate the numbers). Currently, the clubs are in the financial crisis and begin to consistently collect member fees, so the numbers were decreased due to a reduction of inactive members. There is a purification of the member’s base.

5.4.2 National Data on Sport Club Participation (by Age Group, Sex, etc.)

Participation amounted to 1.6 million members in 2010; due to a dramatic change in the conditions of the financing of sports associations and the bankruptcy of lottery company SAZKA owned by sports associations, there was a significant decline in the membership base. For example Football Association of Czech Republic had 520,000 members and now it decreased to 280,000.

Memberships in ČUS as of 31 December 2013 persist in the trend of the last few years, which is a slight decline. ČUS has 1,297,898 members and 8,731 clubs. This represents an annual loss of 298 sport clubs and approximately 130,000 members, from which the 37,000 is among the youth. Figure 5.1 shows the same trend in the overall statistics on sports branches after the inclusion of the rest of the members belonging to the line of national sports associations. This is caused by the unfavourable demographic development in the Czech Republic. In the 1990s the birth rate declined. The unfavorable trend was stooped after the year 2005. The trend may changes after a few years again (Fig. 5.2).

Fig. 5.1
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Municipality size and number of clubs (Palma 2014, p. 66)

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Fig. 5.2
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Membership of the ČUS in the period from 2001 to 2013 (ČUS 2014)

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In the age structure and decomposition we can demonstrate unfavorable demographic development as in Fig. 5.3.

Fig. 5.3
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The share of youth in the membership base of ČUS during the years 2000–2012 (ČUS 2014)

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Figure 5.4 shows the development of memberships in ČUS when dividing them into three age categories with aspect of sex: to the category of students/pupils as a male or a female and fall members under the age of 15 years (whereby the member, who turned 15 years of age during 2013, is counted in adolescents), again divided to male and female. The member who during 2013 turned 19 years of age, for this year, is already counted in the category of adults with dividing to men and women.

Fig. 5.4
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Development of the share of the membership base in ČSTV–ČUS during the years 2000–2012 by ages and gender (ČUS 2014)

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In Fig. 5.4 we can see the decreasing share of females mainly in categories U15 and adult women. There are probably two main reasons: unfavorable demographic development and a lack of appealing sporting activities for women offered by the ČUS.

Table 5.1 captures the development of citizen’s participation in the biggest sport organisation ČSTV–ČUS in the Czech Republic. In the period between years 1974 and 1988 only one umbrella sports organisation for the whole Czechoslovakia did exist. The unitary system of the sport did exist for the whole republic. Years 2008–2013 are the period of the pluralistic system of the covering sports federations in the Czech Republic. ČSTV, now ČUS, is still continuing as the biggest sports umbrella organisation until now. It is necessary to keep in mind that the last data of members are distorted by duplications and triplications.

Table 5.1 Development of the membership in CSTV/ČUS in the period 1974–2013 (age, gender, position; Statistika ČSTV 1974, 1984, 1988)
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The number of memberships was growing until 2008. In recent years it has significantly reduced. A possible cause could be the bankruptcy of the company SAZKA and troubles with funding of sport clubs. Numbers of clubs until 1988 increased slightly. In the 1990s there was a sharp increase in the number of clubs and in 2008 it was about 51 % more than it was 20 years ago. In contrast of this development, the average size of the club was reduced to 150 members and it is about 41 % lower compared with 1988. In the period of the socialisms the average size of the club has been slightly increasing (20.2 %). After political change in Czechoslovakia in 1990 a trend of increasing number of sport clubs and decreasing average size of the clubs was obvious. A possible explanation could be an increased number of single-subject clubs, emergence of new popular sports and troubles with financing. In 2008 there were 5,514 clubs while in 2013 the number increased to 5,826. 67 % of them were single-subject clubs. On the contrary the number of multidisciplinary clubs with more than six disciplinary was reduced from 574 to 555 with a share of 6 % in 2013. An unfavorable development can be observed in the structure of members by gender and age. The share of men is continually increasing. It was 73.9 % in the year 2013. In contrast of this development, the share of women is decreasing—a top share was 36.3 % in 1988 whereas in 2013 it declined to 26.5 %. The possible cause could be a lack of attractive supply for women and girls from sport clubs. In large cities it could be a competition offer of the commercial fit centres. Decreases in the number of young people could be caused by lower birth rates in the Czech population between years 1993 and 2003. The decrease in the number of trainers and referees can be explained firstly by an underestimation of the importance of the training volunteers from a side of sport federations and secondly it could be affected by the changes in the labour market. Employers do not want to free employees for the education courses organised by sport federations. Czech clubs move closer to the standards of Western Europe. It may be the result of problems with financing of sport in the Czech Republic and sports clubs trying to convert sports facilities to municipalities.

ČASPV, Sokol and Orel are in a different situation with the age and gender structure of members.

Sokol had 1,002 clubs with 160,460 members in 2013. According to the age structure 65.4 % of members are adults and 34.8 % are underaged. The gender structure is not officially listed.

ČASPV was having 770 departments or sections with 45,603 members in 2013. Only 117 of them are in the club of ČASPV; others belong under another covering sport association. For example, 629 departments are in sport sections in the clubs of ČUS. Fig. 5.5 shows the age structure of the ČASPV as the tree of life. They have a 47.8 % share of the youth from 45,603 member base. In the gender structure they have 59.55 % of female members. Since 2012 it has seen dramatic fall of members—from 240,000 to 45,000 members.

Fig. 5.5
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The Tree of Life members in ČASPV on 31 December 2013 (ČASPV 2013)

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Orel had around 17,000 members in 250 clubs with sport facilities mainly including gymnasiums.

Sokol and Orel differ significantly from ČASPV in age structures of the membership because they are associations with a very long tradition. Regarding the age structure, clubs of these associations are in a better situation than clubs from ČUS. It is obvious from the fragmentary information that these organisations provide to the public.

KČT has around 40,000 members in 461 departments. Almost one-quarter of the members are young people.

Asociace tělovýchovných jednot a sportovních klubů (ATJSK) Association of Sports Clubs in 2013 encompassed 62 clubs with 14,006 members. The proportion of young and adults in the membership was 47.6 %. There were registered 33 disabled sportsmen and 1,633 seniors.

5.5 Societal, Political Embedding

Sports clubs are very important for the social life in municipalities. Czech amateur clubs were owners of two-thirds of all the sports facilities in the country. After bankruptcy of the lottery company SAZKA (2011), whose earnings were a very strong source of funding for non-profit sport organisations, a new situation started. Amateur sports clubs have shown an increased tendency for transfers of ownership of the large sport facilities onto municipalities. Especially in large cities the process has begun. Until now many football stadiums, ice arenas, swimming pools and multifunctional exercise halls are under the municipal ownership. This is underpinned by the value of assets of the amateur sport clubs. In 2005 ČSTV showed assets in the amount of CZK 42 billion and in 2013 it was fluctuating between 15 and 18 billion CZK. This will further allow citizens of towns and villages to access sports activities. Most municipalities do not have to take care of the maintenance and operation of sports facilities; they support clubs only by small grants. In reality there are two types of club’s support. The first type is grant on sports activity, mostly related to the support of young members of clubs on the expenditures for the sport competitions (such as the rent for the use of sports facilities or sports jerseys). Second type of the support is oriented to the operating costs of sports facilities and for the maintenance. Volume of this support or the subvention should be higher than the one for sport activities. In 2013, most municipalities provided grants to clubs only for sports facilities which are owners of sports facilities and clubs must have a seat in the municipality.

5.5.1 Revenue Structure of the Clubs’ Budgets

KPMG studies from 2012 show that key sources for the clubs’ revenues are household expenditures with 42 %. Public budgets (as the municipal, regional and governmental) are second contributing with 19 %, with the majority coming from municipal budgets. It is interesting to observe this share in a long interval through the existence of Czechoslovakia. In the long past the share was still oscillating between 17 and 20 %. The other sources as contributions from the sport federations, sponsorship and donations are relatively equal. The membership fees are hidden under the household’s revenue (Fig. 5.6).

Fig. 5.6
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Revenue structure of the club budgets (KPMG 2012)

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There are disproportions with the statistic of ČUS to the date 31 December 2013. According to them, the share of membership fees was at around 22 % of clubs’ revenues. KPMG used different methods for estimating the different income sources. Probably more exact is the information from the statistic of ČUS. The increasing trend in member fees still exists since 1990. In the last 10 years it was accelerating.

The results of Palma (2014) indicated the fact that the primary source across the spectrum cannot be identified and the degree of importance of each resource is important for every other club. He selected the following items: membership fee—dues, grants from municipalities, grants or contributions from the sports association, sponsorship, donations and finally complementary activities of the club, for example income from hostels, rent of sports equipment and sports facilities for the general public. It depends on under which conditions the club operates and what the environment offers as income opportunities.

More than half of all surveyed clubs have chosen the membership fees ranging from 201 to 1,500 CZK per year (7–54 EUR). 6.7 % of the clubs do not collect membership fees, while over 5,000 CZK had been collected only by a golf club. It is true that rural clubs are choosing lower contributions than clubs from cities and that they play in lower leagues, which are cheaper (Fig. 5.7).

Fig. 5.7
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The amount of membership fees of clubs (Palma 2014, p. 70)

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Cooperation of the club with the municipality in which it is located must be good. Support can be financial or non-financial. Here it became clear that the overwhelming majority of nearly 92 % of the relevant municipalities cooperate with the clubs, which is a good sign. It does not prove the rule one club in the village = cooperation between the two entities (Fig. 5.8).

Fig. 5.8
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The request for financial assistance from the municipality in the last 2 years, 2011, 2012 (Palma 2014, p. 69)

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5.5.2 Cooperation with Municipality

Of the 83.4 % of the clubs that have requested funding 80 % were successful and only 3.4 % of clubs’ applications were unsuccessful; this indicates that the relationships between clubs and municipalities are very good.

Financial support of clubs from the sports associations is less than that from municipalities. 56 % of clubs requested the financial support and 21.6 % did not succeed. The effectiveness of this kind of support is not as high as in the case of applications from municipalities. Only 15 % of clubs had the chance to get the grant/contribution or non-financial support directly from the government (Ministry of Education) and 3 % of them got the grant in the full amount at the end.

It can be stated that 66.67 % of sport clubs consider the current system of the public finance support in the Czech Republic as unsatisfactory. Only 8.3 % clubs consider the system as adequate as well as the reasonable amount of money for them.

Most of the clubs, 67 %, were able to keep their budget balanced and keep revenues in balance with expenditures. Only 10 % of clubs found it impossible to get out from deficit, and 14.7 % of clubs operated with surplus.

In Czech sport clubs women and men, respectively girls and boys, are practising together. In 67 % of the clubs there are sporting for both together. Strictly women’s representation can only be found in one of the volleyball clubs. Then 32 % has in its ranks only male representative. 26 % of them play football, 4.3 % play table tennis and the last club plays ice hockey. We do not have a precise information on specially youth-oriented sport clubs. It exists, but usually the care about the youth is carried out at a club with adults. It is one condition for obtaining grants from the sport association.

Sport clubs are still very active in the participation on the social life of community. Traditional clubs organise cultural and social events, which were always in Czech rural areas and very popular smaller towns. Such activities not only enrich the life in the village, but also contribute by income to the budget of the clubs. The responses indicate that only 10 % of the clubs do not organise any such activities (could probably be very small clubs from the larger cities). Figure 5.9 shows the participation of sport clubs in the social life of municipalities.

Fig. 5.9
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Participation of sport clubs in the social life of municipalities (Palma 2014, p. 78)

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Czech clubs perceive their work as a mission towards the development of a healthy lifestyle, transmission of moral values, socialisation of young people, youth crime prevention, etc. 88 % of clubs consider this activity as the added value.

5.6 Conclusion

The Czech sport movement is going through a difficult period, especially for sport clubs. The number of young people has been reduced and clubs have financial troubles. In recapitulation of available information it can be stated that the Czech Republic has 10,162 sport clubs in the five main umbrella sport associations. It does not count 461 departments of the Czech Tourist Club. It is not clear if every club exists as a sport club or as the department of bigger sport clubs in other associations. From the unreliable statistical statements of amateur sports federations we can estimate the current state of the membership base to 1.7 million registered members. Since 1990 the share of one-branch clubs has been slowly increasing, and now it is at 67 %. This reduces the size of the clubs, now at 150 members. In the ČUS, the proportion of female component falls to historic minimum of 26.5 %. Only ČASPV has a share of the female component of 59.9 % and 47.8 % share of the youth. All amateur clubs are part of social life in communities. The club is playing greater role in smaller towns and villages. The Czech sport movement has a long historical tradition and hopefully the temporal obstacles can be overcome and clubs will offer sport for all in a optimal structure.