Fans of Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria have launched a petition to have
their national team thrown out of the competition on the grounds
that they are going to humiliate the country. The Österreich zeigt
Rückgrat (Austria show backbone) initiative calls for the team to
be withdrawn for the benefit of football fans everywhere and
national pride in Austria.
The website tells its English-speaking visitors: "It cannot be
denied: the performance of the Austrian team is an insult to your
sense of aesthetics as well as to what you expect from this sport.
Their participating in the Euro 2008 is to you a contradiction in
itself. We understand."
The website goes on to add: "Austria was once a country with a keen
sense for aesthetics; 'a people gifted for beauty', as a verse of
our national anthem states an anthem our players barely manage to
stammer along to, as they pale-facedly contemplate yet another
gruelling encounter with the ball and the opponent. We want to show
the world that we still embrace beauty. And at the same time, we
want to do something that is as alien to our people as the names of
our strikers are to foreign football experts: To show some
dignity!"
Click here
to sign the petition!
