Winter Tipsport Cup 2007 Tournament Officially Open
The jubilee tenth football Tipsport Cup that is considered to be the most prestigious tournament in the Czech Republic was officially opened in presence of representatives of clubs, sponsors and journalists on Tuesday, January 9. It takes place in four venues, all matches are played on artificial pitch and the Teplice team is a defending winner from the last year. Mladá Boleslav that belongs among this year's front-runners won the tournament a year before. Slovan Liberec, FK Jablonec, FC Vysočina Jihlava, FC Hradec Králové and FK Mladá Boleslav are the participants of the Mladá Boleslav group.
The tournament has taken place under patronage of Tipsport betting agency since 2001, i.e. since its fourth year. Only the first tournament of the Cup was organized in one group with eight participating teams. Between 1999 and 2005, the tournament was organized in two groups with additional matches for final standings. In winter 2006, the participating teams were divided into four groups for the first time. A record-breaking number of twenty teams will participate in this year's jubilee tenth tournament.
Mladá Boleslav participated four times so far. The team ended on the fourth position in 2002. It improved by one position in consequent year 2003 when defeated Jablonec on penalty kicks in the match for the third position. In 2005, Mladá Boleslav became the winner of the Tipsport Cup. The team took the first position in the B group standings with participation of Jablonec, Bohemians and Příbram and defeated the best team of the A group, Viktoria Žižkov 3:2 in the finals when Sedláček, Jarolím and Palát scored goals. In 2006, Mladá Boleslav won its group with participation of Liberec, Jablonec and Hradec Králové again. But the team renounced qualifying in the semi-finals because of departure for a training camp in Cyprus.
