Kladno Hockey Club in Crisis: What’s the Way Out?

Kladno hockey players are drowning in a deep crisis. They have lost seventeen games in a row and the unfathomable play-off is approaching inexorably. In addition, the fans, who are annoyed by the way Jaromír Jágr is leading the club, also stood up against their own club. The Kladno legend Milan Nové, who won the league title and the European Hockey Cup five times with the Central Bohemian team, does not look at it well at all.

Kladno has lost seventeen games in a row and is hopelessly last. How do you see it as a club legend?

We get one owner after another. Now we played without four players who received a well-deserved penalty. We play with juniors, there are fewer spectators. I am not afraid to say that this is the worst season in the history of Kladno hockey. I say that openly.

And what about it? Is there a way out of this?

The way always leads out. We will play a playoff, it can be won, but the problem is that the fan club doesn’t go. You need the fans, on Wednesday the atmosphere was like a training session. That’s not playing well. Everything has to be solved by the owner. When he arrives, I hope he will look at these things and we will take a step in the right direction.

The fans have publicly declared that they will not stop the boycott until they receive answers from the club’s management about the functioning of the club. Do you agree with their position?

The fanclub is interested in things you don’t need to tell the fanclub. Take a look at the action with Hudáček, for example. It costs the yard some money. Some Haldars, who I have never heard of, started playing it, and I have been involved in Kladno hockey since I was fifteen years old. And then we read that Hudáček is a star in Germany, he wins matches for them. It’s coming at us from left to right.

​Is there a problem in Kladno’s youth as well?

When I played for the youth team, we were champions and Mr. Prošek could take us to the A team. But now they play in some second league and are still last or penultimate. You can’t even put that kid in the A’s there.

And who do you think is responsible for this? Is it the fault of Jaromir Jagr and the rest of the management?

That would require Jarda to work 24 hours a day. He already works a lot like this. I don’t know what to do with the youth. We have ice, they have weapons. It also depends on the children and parents. For example, I used to go to training by bus, today their parents drive them, carry a bag for them, make a hole in their heads that they will play in the NHL, but then they won’t even play for Kladno. I don’t think all the problems should go to Jarda Jágr. When things don’t go well, everyone blames Jagr, that’s simple. I have to stick up for Jardy.

​So is it good that Jagr is the owner?

If we didn’t have Jaromir, we wouldn’t even have a repaired stadium and we would be playing in the second league, where we wouldn’t even be among the top three. Where are you going to take the players if you don’t have youth? It is complicated. I can’t imagine how hockey in Kladno would turn out if Jaromír wasn’t the owner. Friends tell me someone would buy it. Rich people are with us. But they will go to Sparta or Kometa Brno. But to Kladno? We do have history, but it no longer counts. Look at Dukla Jihlava.

Wouldn’t it be better for Kladno if Jágr didn’t waste his energy on the ice and devoted himself to the club instead of playing actively?

I go to watch the training sessions a few times. When Jarda trains with them, he knows how the players are doing. He has an overview, you don’t see that much from above. How many times I see that everyone is gone, but his car is still there. People don’t see that. When things go well, they slap you, and when things don’t go well, Jaromír Jágr is to blame for everything. No way. There are plenty of youth coaches out there who have college degrees. He can’t always check on them or go after them. When you graduate from the faculty, you have to know something.

Last year, Jaromír Jágr remembered Nagano as part of the 25-year anniversary:

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TN.cz