Poland’s national football coach apologised after a tabloid newspaper ran a gruesome depiction of him holding the severed heads of Germany’s national trainer and team captain and demanded he slaughter them at the forthcoming Euro 2008 championships.

The photomontage in Super Express of Poland’s Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, clutching the bloodied heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Löw provoked outrage in Germany and threatened to overshadow the match between the two group B teams on Sunday.

The picture ran alongside the caption: “Leo, Give us their heads,” arguing that Poland, which has never beaten Germany, had waited too long for a victory over its neighbour.

This couldn’t happen this side of the pond, could it? Could it?




  1. TVAddict says:

    Meh. Sports. Yawn. Soccer. ZZZZZ

  2. god says:

    Get back in the basement, #1. Mom will call you when supper is ready.

  3. Mr. Gawd Almighty says:

    To some it is just a game. To others, it is a little more.

  4. Ah_Yea says:

    To all those to whom sports is a little more.

    Get a life.

    I mean it. Get a life. Find meaning to your existence outside of the ultimately meaningless pursuit of sports.

    Outside of being a diversion from an otherwise empty life, what does sports have to offer? How does knowing the latest stats or the BIO’s of the newest pic make you a better person?

    Put down the remote. Turn off the TV. Use that time to volunteer at the homeless mission, or read a good book, or take a class in just about anything. Form new friendships.

    When we are dead and gone, the only thing we leave behind is what we have accomplished. Knowing the latest score isn’t much of an accomplishment.

  5. Shin says:

    You see..the problem here is more related to Germans and a sense of humor than sports. That is hilarious, no one in their right mind could take it seriously, that kind of language is used virtually daily in every sport I have ever seen or heard of in every language I have ever heard of. The photoshopping just made it funny. They should also have dressed up the Polish coach in a Braveheart type of look..would have fit nicely.

  6. Ah_Yea says:

    Or, as Shin so well puts it, don’t take it too seriously!

  7. JPV says:

    Is this really news?

  8. ± says:

    Geez, ya’ll are so serious for something which is not and can not be your issue.
    There is obvious context here ignored or even unimaginable to the typical American in the responses above.

  9. Mr. Gawd Almighty says:

    #8, wingnut


    There is obvious context here ignored or even unimaginable to the typical American in the responses above.

    Is that an excuse for stupid?


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