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Slovan Liberec beat the Portuguese side Estoril Praia 2:1 at home in a Europa League game on Thursday. The visitors had one player sent off towards the end of the first half and another dismissed with eight minutes remaining. Liberec are second in their group, with four points from two matches, behind Sevilla who have the maximum six. The north Bohemian side play host to the Spaniards in a fortnight’s time.

Record low temperatures were registered at several weather stations in the Czech Republic on Friday morning. Some 25 stations that have been in operation for 50 years saw new lows for this date, while the coldest place in the country – with -10.9 degrees Celsius – was Rokytská slať in Šumava, south Bohemia.

In his new book, former Czech president Václav Klaus calls for the Czech Republic to leave the European Union. In the book entitled “Decision Time” which is to be published next week, Mr Klaus argues that the EU deepened various negative features of the Czech society, politics and economy by overregulation, disregard for the sovereignty of national governments, and diminishing their responsibility. In an interview for the daily Mladá fronta Dnes on Thursday, Mr Klaus also called for a fundamental change in people’s thinking, similar to that which occurred after the fall of communism. Mr Klaus, whose second term as president expired in February, now heads his own Prague-based institute.

New legislation introduced last year to curb corruption in public procurement has failed, suggests a new survey by the consultancy firm Otidea released on Thursday. 95 percent of companies which took part in the poll said they still encountered public procurement projects tailored to suit a particular bidder; meanwhile, around 70 percent of public officials said tenders were not more transparent than they were before the legislation came into force. The poll also suggests that one in six officials admitted to having accepted undervalued bids which have become a new strategy for companies to win public contracts.