František Konvička

"In 1964, we played the final against Real Madrid in Madrid, and we hoped we could succeed. But when we found out that the Hungarian referee Cifra was coming with us, and he was greeted by Puskás [a Hungarian football star in the service of Real Madrid] right at the airport, we knew it was probably going to be a difficult situation. Although, I have to say that Real Madrid definitely had the quality. We knew it was bad for us. We didn't lose by much, but we lost. We found out that there is not only sporting performance but also economic performance, and we couldn't match Madrid there. But there was a situation there that I want to talk about. Me and Láďa Pištělák were nominated for the European team. The team met the day we left Madrid. And we had to excuse ourselves because of our study obligations. Nobody could understand. Two Poles from Legia Warsaw went instead of us. We couldn't play because Franco was there as the boss of Spain. It was a situation that Láďa and I found very difficult to bear. But it came back to us two years later, then two years later in 1968 in Belgrade, when we played for the European team."

"Of course, no one will understand now that we had a so-called exit clause when we went out. It couldn't be lost, and we weren't allowed to miss a day's return. As for the customs declaration, these were tales we told ourselves for years and years, for better or for worse. The checks were often very bad. Speaking of which, I recall a more amusing story. It was near the end of my career, 1969, and we were playing the Champions Cup in Belgium. We were coming back to Prague, and we were afraid of the customs, but it was 18 or 19 March 1969, and the customs didn't pay any attention to us. They were watching TV, and you probably know what was on. A hockey game between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. So we slipped through without any checking, which is such a funny postscript to that time."

"You said that after the war you and your Dad went to...?" - "Krásná Lípa near Rumburk, he was setting up a hosiery factory there. The Germans had been moved out, and it had to be put back together somehow. But then February 1948 came, my father was still in Varnsdorf for two years, and we left Krásná Lípa with my mother and brother for Třebíč." - "In Krásná Lípa, how do you remember the post-war years when you went there? Right in 1945?" - "No, it wasn't until the autumn of 1946 that we went to Krásná Lípa. I remember the night shootings that were quite often there. It had to do with the fact that Krásná Lípa was close to the border, and the border was not guarded. So there were disturbances. I can't say what it was about, but it was a common denominator of the border areas at that time." - "Where did you live there? How did you get...?" - "A beautiful German villa, just outside the factory, but I was only at school for a year and a half, and the memories of my classmates faded from my mind." - "Your Dad, when February 1948 came, does he remember anything? Did he suffer through it a lot? Did he tell you about it?" - "Well, I was a ten-year-old boy. I remember they rang the bell, there were two militiamen. They told us to move out in twenty-four hours. They offered us an apartment in Krásná Lípa in a ruined building. My mother took us immediately, we moved and went back to Třebíč to my grandmother. Then, to the family house. It was difficult for us to get there."