FIR students represented the university in futsal and placed 3rd in the international tournament in Rome
The futsal team of Prague University of Economics and Business participated in the 6th International tournament World InterUniversities Championships in Rome. The team of our university placed 3rd! For the futsal players, it is the first medal success in this championship. FIR team is represented by students Antonín Valášek and Josef Sluťák, both currently studying the master´s degree of International Business study program.
In the basic group of this year’s championship we have competed with ESSCA Paris, ESADE Barcelona and Università degli Studi di Milano. We managed to beat all teams and win in the group with the results 9:2. The first place in the group ensured we will be playing against a pleasant competitor in the 1/8 final: The HEC Paris university, whom we beaten 6:0. In the ¼ final we were competing with Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and we managed to win 3:1. By this victory we improved our results from the year 2018 and by that time we knew we could reach the medal places. In semi-finals we stood against Slovakian Comenius University, the team was full of professional futsal players. Unfortunately, we lost this match although the pressure from our team members (1:0) and made us us fight for the bronze medal. To sum it up, the last match meant we will either win or lose everything, because medals could be gained only for the victory. Our team adopted this approach successfully and won against ESADE Barcelona 9:1.
We have discussed our big team success with the futsal team captain Antonín Valášek:
In the University league, our team is relatively wide. It is not always easy to combine studies and school sport, especially when majority of us has also their own trainings and jobs. There were 10 of us who actually travelled to the Rome tournament together with the coach Jiří Kotáb who led our team also 2 years ago in China where we won 2 gold medals in football. We wanted to follow this success by gaining medals in futsal in Rome. In the end, we played short-handed of 1 player because of injury and played for two-fours. In the back, we were secured by the university legend Martin Kučera, who performed outstanding!
What was the atmosphere like during the championship?
The atmosphere during the tournament was incredible. It was a championship in numerous sports and in Rome, there were more than 1800 sportsmen present. The viewers were cheering enthusiastically. We have also tried to support the volleyball teams from our university or from other Czech or Slovakian universities and they were kindly paying it back to us when it was our turn to play. This approach was visible not just on grandstands but also during the evening celebrations: The atmosphere was pleasant during the whole event.
How do you perceive the sport opportunities at our university?
At the Prague University of Economics and Business, there are plenty of sport opportunities, and we appreciate it. We should mention for instance the newly established football and futsal university league in which we also participate. We have known about the World InterUniversities Championship for quite some time now and we have participated a few times already, but we managed to bring medal this year for the first time. Although we somehow feel we should have won the whole tournament. At least we have motivation to come back and finish what we started. We highly appreciate all the financial and other support from our school. These kinds of events are financially very demanding and without the scholarship we couldn´t participate and represent our university such as we do now.
What is it like to be a member of the futsal team at VŠE?
To be a member of the futsal team is advantageous from all points of view. I believe all successes we have gained made us all to become true friends. The results from the field are carried also into the daily life and we support each other also in studies, or when doing business and we plan together other sport activities. Thanks to the university sport I have met friends, I dare to say, for life.
