Tomas Repka had a reputation as a fierce player known for being sent off, but he had a strong loyalty to West Ham Football Club which was reciprocated by the fans. Danny Lewis looks at his career. 
When thinking of the greatest and most imposing referees in history, the first to come to mind for many across the world will undoubtedly be Pierluigi Collina. In his time in black, the Italian was always in control and there is one video from Euro 2000 that epitomises this. Tomas Repka had clashed with Edgar Davids, with Collina quickly standing between the two men. In the video he can be seen pushing Repka twice and shouting at him to step back. Referees have to calm players down all the time and Collina will have been involved in this type of situation on countless occasions, so what made this stand out? It has to be the fact that it was Repka, one of the most uncontrollable beasts to step foot on a football pitch, who Collina was able to tame. There aren’t many referees, players or coaches in the game who could have done the same.
Repka was born in Slavičin, a town in the Zlin region of what was Czechoslovakia at the time. He stood at six foot tall and was the fiercest of competitors, who would never be seen to shirk a challenge and would give his all for the cause. Repka was hard hitting in his tackles, a real leader and somebody who his supporters and teammates knew they could rely on, even if he did not always get the most plaudits from the media or opposition supporters due to his combative style. The defender came through the youth systems of Sokol Brumov and FC Zlin, who had two name changes in the three years he was there and have been known as FC Zastav Zlin since 2012. However, his first forays into first team football came at FC Baník Ostrava in 1990, whom he represented over 70 times. Banik had been champions of Czechoslovakia thrice, won the Czech Cup four times before Repka’s arrival, adding the Mitrocup the season before he joined.
While he was playing for Ostrava, Repka made his one and only appearance for Czechoslovakia, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3-0 win over Faroe Islands in the World Cup Qualifiers. It wasn’t that he was dropped or dismissed by his national team, but that the country was split into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. If there was a struggle to pin down the identity of the club he was at when Zlin were constantly changing their name, it must have been even more difficult for Repka regarding his country’s dissolution. His home town of Slavičín is under half an hour’s drive from the border that was set in place, so if it had been set slightly more West, then he would have been turning out for Slovakia following the split. However, the defender made his debut for Czech Republic in a 3-1 friendly win against Republic of Ireland in 1994, before going on to win 46 caps for his country. Tomas Repka’s name was placed in the referee’s book during that debut, something that would become a recurring theme throughout his career.
There may have been issues with identifying the sides that Repka represented during the early stages of his career, but there was a distinctiveness to the man himself which could not be mistaken. The Czech defender was not a man to be messed with. He would not shirk any challenge and was known for having disciplinary problems, totting up a total of 20 red cards throughout his career. However, this was a consequence of the passion and commitment that Repka showed whenever he stepped onto a football pitch. He wasn’t popular amongst opposition players, but Repka was certainly a favourite amongst the supporters of the clubs he played for.