What The World is Reading

A hammering from the Netherlands, an unsightly draw with Romania, and their world champion team in tatters...

Gazzetta dello Sport

A hammering from the Netherlands, an unsightly draw with Romania, and their world champion team in tatters, trust the Italians to come up with conspiracy theories. Gazzetta dello Sport says players are furious with coach Roberto Donadoni, blaming him for the performances, and complaining about it in text messages to other players not in the Euro squad. “Physically we are fine, but we enter onto the field with fear,” one wrote, according to Gazzetta. “We only know who plays a few hours before the game. We are treated like children,” was another’s tirade.

The Telegraph

The Telegraph writes about the merry Oranje fans from Netherlands. One delightful story captures in all colour the Dutch fans’ uniqueness. “Grown men think nothing of wearing orange skirts. Orange boiler-suits are particularly popular, partly because the long pockets permit two cans of Heineken each… Two rows behind Marco van Basten’s dug-out sat four middle-aged Dutchmen, chatting, reading the tournament programme, each one resplendent in an orange cat outfit with splendid whiskers and tails that flopped onto the row behind,” says The Telegraph.

Deutsche Welle

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An altered rule has the German web publication excited. With UEFA to decide qualification at the group stage on a penalty shoot-out in case of a tie of points, goals (for/against) and head-to-head between two teams playing each other, Deutsche Welle analyses the mathematics and after some serious number crunching comes to the conclusion that the Czechs are the best penalty takers.

The Guardian

The English team may not be there, but with English referee Howard Webb under fire for his late penalty decision that gave co-hosts Austria a draw against Poland, The Guardian has a story on their man. Webb has been, reportedly, given police protection after the Poles united in a battle cry against the referee, and more so after the Polish prime minister’s outburst about wanting to “kill the referee.” “As the prime minister I have to be balanced and collected,” Donald Tusk reportedly said, “But on Thursday night I was speaking very differently about the whole thing, I wanted to kill. Referees make mistakes and this was an obvious error that harmed us all.”

BLOGS

Ron Liddle

The Times’s ever-cynical Liddle finds this Euro “wonderful” as there is no hyperbole, no WAGs, and no sense of foreboding, with the English team absent, on timesonline.com.

Mark Meadows Reuters’s Meadows moans about the drunken fans, meal-less restaurants and crazy taxi drivers in serene Switzerland.

Hamilton

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World Soccer’s editor discusses the propensity of American/Asian journalists to wear their club football affinity on their sleeves and the Europeans’ opposite view of it.