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Dutch penalty triggers Euro skepticism |
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June 15, 2000
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, JUNE 14 (AP) - The controversial call by Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, who awarded the Dutch team a last minute dodgy penalty against the Czechs last weekend, has triggered a wave of Euroskepticism across this country.
Czechs are among the six countries expected to join the European Union after 2003. The move is the subject of an intense political debate here, and support to EU membership is less than 50 percent.
While many Czechs are generally bored by the political dispute between the so-called "Euro-optimists" and "Euro-pessimists," when their soccer stars speak out, it's another matter.
"They still think we're Russians, or something", goalie Pavel Srnicek told Czech TV after Sunday's game, referring to West Europeans. "If they don't want to play fair, why don't they set up a different tournament for us."
"They are not accepting us," complained Czech soccer legend Antonin Panenka in an interview with Mlada Fronta Dnes newspaper."It's one way of seeing this penalty."
Czech soccer aficionados say the penalty is evidence that business, not fair play, runs soccer these days.
"For business reasons, those who have the power do not wish to see a semifinal between the Czechs and Turkey, for example," said the coach of the Czech team Slavia Prague, Frantisek Cipro.
While the tabloids are running Collina's pictures with laced with obscenities, and show-business celebrities display their anger, even serious press takes an unusually nationalistic stance.
"In several minutes on Sunday night, I have undergone a metamorphosis from a nationally cold and indifferent pro-European into an enthusiastic patriot," said Jiri Penas in an editorial in the conservative Lidove Noviny daily.
"The dried up reincarnated `Mussolini called Collina' confirmed with his absurd verdict that in Europe everybody is equal but some are more equal than others," Penas wrote. "I do not want to live in such Europe. I'd rather burn at the stake."
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