A loud scandal ended the match of one of the lower leagues of the Czech championship. The Ukrainian football player of the club «Horomerice» Marian Fedyshyn was attacked by an officer of the Czech army and part-time manager of the rival team Jan Kotvas. He called him a «bastard» for the simulation. The local press said that Kotvas could be disqualified or even sent to prison, but the fans in the comments sided with the compatriot and called for sending Fedyshyn and other Ukrainians home. collapsed on the lawn. It seemed to the players of Velké-Pršilepi that the Ukrainian was frankly simulating, which caused a verbal skirmish at first. And then the club manager Jan Kotvas intervened. According to Sport.cz, he «violently attacked» Fedyshyn.
«
«You're just a bastard, instead of going to war, you play football here, Ukrainian bastard,» the match referee described Kotvas' words.
The episode led to a red card for Kotwas, while his team still achieved a 2-1 victory. Under normal circumstances, the case would have been dealt with in a standard format by a disciplinary committee, but Kotvas is an officer in the Czech army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Moreover, he performs the duties of the commander of the department that ensures the protocol activities of the President of the Czech Republic, the military office of the President, the Parliament of the Republic, the apparatus of the government and the Ministry of Defense of the country. Jan, in an interview with the match delegate, denied that he had spoken the words attributed to him, but eyewitnesses confirmed everything.
“
"The statements we have heard are sufficient. We have received the necessary information and are transferring the case to the military police,» said Martin Opatrny, head of the disciplinary commission of the league association of the western district of Prague.
Kotvas has already been temporarily suspended from football activities, but if his guilt is proven, a temporary ban may be replaced by a permanent term of 15 years and a fine of CZK 100,000. Moreover, in the criminal code of the country there is a clause about «public defamation of a nation, language, race or ethnic group», which threatens the violator with a prison term of up to two years.
The reaction of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic If Kotvasa really gets a criminal sentence for verbally attacking a Ukrainian, this will create an extremely unpleasant precedent in the Czech Republic, where a huge number of Ukrainian athletes play in the lower leagues. Largely for this reason, in the comments to the article on Sport.cz, the vast majority of people stood up for the army officer and expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the stay of Ukrainians in their country.
“It is clear that a Ukrainian would rather play football in the Czech Republic than sit in the trenches. But in Ukraine there is a ban on the departure of men aged 18 to 60. If there is an investigation into the Kotvas case, then the Ukrainian should be handed over to the authorities, because how he breaks the law,” wrote Petr Taborsky.
“
“Kotvas is absolutely right. This young Ukrainian is childless and so healthy that he plays football instead of doing his duty in the army. I understand perfectly why the lieutenant colonel treated him like a deserter,” said Irji Kuba.
«Poor fellow. These Ukrainians are like leaves on trees dangling around the cities here. Even the rudest scoundrels climb here, but since they are from this very country, no one is allowed to even look at them badly, and in addition, they must be treated with extreme caution,» Jitka Oplustilova admitted.
«Some kind of nonsense, this is the maximum civil law dispute, I did not see slander on the whole nation here, only on one person. It is strange that we in the Czech Republic support all this,» said Karel Podrouzek.
“
“If he had attacked a Czech, not a Ukrainian, everyone would have missed it, no one would have written about it,” remarked Jarda Doucha.
“If he can play football, I don’t understand why he can’t defend the country. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them here. Shopping centers are packed with young Ukrainians in designer clothes, and Audis and Mercedes with Ukrainian numbers are parked in the parking lots,» wrote Venca Vrba.
And such an opinion about what happened was indeed expressed by the majority of Czechs, and at the time of writing this material there were more than 500 comments. Worth considering.