Czech Republic punishes national team for ignoring fans after World Cup qualifier
Prague (AP): The Czech Republic soccer association stripped Tomáš Soucek of his captaincy and denied financial bonuses to national team players as punishment for ignoring their fans after their final World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar.
The Czechs, who had been assured of second place in Group L, won the home game 6-0 in Olomouc on Monday, but the players didn't go thank the diehard fans who were critical of their performance in the qualifying campaign.
The team will be seeded in Thursday's draw for the 16-team playoffs next March for four remaining European spots at next summer's World Cup.
The association Tuesday apologized to fans and said the players won't receive the financial bonuses for the game. Instead, the money will go to charities. Soucek will lose his captaincy for the team's next match.
“The fans have a full right to express their disagreement with the unsatisfactory performance in the recent games,” the association said in a statement.
“The reaction of the players should have been quite the contrary. They should have thanked the active fans.”
In Monday's, supporters repeatedly chanted “Fight for Czechia.”
The Czechs struggled in the qualifying campaign and fired coach Ivan Hašek following a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Faroe Islands last month.
Hašek's assistant Jaroslav Köstl led the team to a 1-0 win over San Marino in a friendly and against Gibraltar.
A new coach could be named for the playoffs.
The Czechs last qualified for the tournament in 2006.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
