The Drnovice club represented a town with a population of about 2,000 people and until the mid-80s of the 20th century was unknown to anyone and played in the lower regional leagues. Everything changed for the club when Jan Gottwald became its leader in 1982, he set ambitious tasks for the club and set about to accomplish them. At that time, the club completed almost every season with a promotion to a higher league, over 10 years having gone from the 8th to the 2nd strongest leagues in Czechoslovakia . In 1993, after the collapse of Czechoslovakia and the formation of the Czech championship, “Drnovice” for the first time in its history received the right to play in the country's top league. In 1994, Gottwald, unable to single-handedly provide increased, in connection with the transition to the highest level, the club’s financial appetites were sold to the Hemapol petrochemical company, while he actually remained one of the club’s leaders. The new owner of the club in Drnovice built a new stadium, which became one of the best in the Czech Republic, in which one of the friendly matches in 1999 was held by the Czech team , having won in it against the Swiss team with a score of 3: 0. Over time, Gottwald lost his influence in the club and after a series of disagreements with the new owners left him in 1998. Having lost its creator and inspirer, the club lost its luck, the very next year the Hemapol company went bankrupt and was forced to sell the club to the Persport company, which in turn resold its former owner, Jan Gottwald. Gottwald’s return the club marked the third place in the Czech championship, it was the best result in the club’s history, this success allowed the club to take part in the UEFA Cup 2000/01 , in which he went through the qualifying round lost to the first round in a bitter struggle to the German club “ Munich 1860 ". But Gottwald could not maintain such a strong club and he was soon forced to sell it to the little-known Corimex company, while he was accused of financial fraud and imprisoned, and the club was forced to sell almost all of its players due to increased financial problems and was transferred to the third league. In 2003, the remnants of the essentially collapsed club were acquired by the Garimondi company, which transferred it to the management of Gottwald, who was released on bail. Gottwald again zealously got down to business and in two seasons he again led the team to the big leagues, after which the club was acquired by the Swiss firm Sunstone, but it could not find investors for the club and was forced to sell the club again to Jan Gottwald, but the same managed to find sponsors and in 2005 the club flew out of the top division, and in 2006 it finally went bankrupt and ceased to exist. The very next year, a number of former club players decided to revive the team, and the new team began their performances from the lowest level, having successively won several tournaments, at the moment “Drnovice” has ceased to exist.
Drnovice
