What had already been hinted at is now official. UEFA has excluded the Czech Cup champion, MFK Karvina, from its competitions due to match-fixing.
The first qualifying rounds for European competitions begin in just one week. But before they start, there’s yet another change to the schedule. As UEFA announced on Thursday, the organization has excluded the Czech Cup champion, MFK Karvina, from the Europa League. “On July 2, 2026, the UEFA Appeals Chamber decided to declare MFK Karvina ineligible to participate in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League because it did not meet the eligibility criterion set forth in Article 4.01(g) of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League Regulations, i.e., because it was directly and/or indirectly involved in activities aimed at manipulating or influencing the outcome of matches at the national level,” writes UEFA.
The exclusion comes as no surprise to the club from the Moravian-Silesian city. After all, the Czech Football Association (FACR) had already taken tough action a good two weeks ago: It relegated Karvina to the second division and fined the club 414,000 euros. The disciplinary violation concerned three matches in the top division in 2024.
Three Czech clubs are pleased with the ruling
In addition, the court suspended five MFK players as well as Karvina’s mayor, Jan Wolf—the latter’s suspension lasting until 2038. Wolf is also required to pay a fine of 125,000 euros for allegedly influencing referees.
The ruling now handed down by UEFA is likely to please three Czech clubs. Viktoria Plzeň will take Karviná’s place in the Europa League playoffs, FC Hradec Králové will take Plzeň’s place in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, and FK Jablonec will take Králové’s place in the second qualifying round of the Conference League. Kralove will therefore now play against Tromsø instead of Varazdin, whom Jablonec will face (both on June 23).
