FC Hradec Králové The footballing history of FC Hradec Králové dates back to 1905. Nicknamed Votroci by supporters, the eastern Bohemian club achieved the greatest success of its history in the 1959–60 season, winning the Czechoslovak championship as Spartak Hradec Králové. The title opened the door to the European Cup, where in 1960–61 the club advanced all the way to the quarter-finals before losing to that season's eventual runners-up, FC Barcelona — still the club's deepest run in European competition.
Another significant chapter came in 1995, when Hradec Králové won the Czech Cup, earning a place in the European Cup Winners' Cup. There the club was eliminated in the round of 16, losing to Dynamo Moscow. Beyond these two European episodes, the club's history has been marked mainly by fluctuating fortunes — the Votroci have been relegated from the Czech top flight as many as five times, fighting their way back on each occasion.
A genuinely new chapter in the club's century-long story opened with the completion of the modern Malšovická aréna in 2023, which holds more than 9,300 spectators and replaced the club's long-serving old ground on the same street. Today, Hradec Králové competes regularly in the Czech First League, striving to recapture the glory of its finest hour from more than sixty years ago.