FOOTBALL FEROCITY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 252, 21 July 1936, Page 14

FOOTBALL FEROCITY

The Continental Idea TT is slightly- disturbing to see how suc- -*- eesses in sports are becoming a question of national prestige, writes a Vienna correspondent to a London daily. Take, for instance, the sporting events between Italy and Austria. Three times football matches (Soccer) between au Italian and an Austrian team have developed into regular battles. Aud yet Austria and Italy are connected through treaties of friendship, and a keen exchange of cultural products exists. Italy spent enormous sums to establish au Italian cultural institute in Vienna, and entrusted one of her finest men, Senator Salata, with the management of this institute. The Italian establishment in Vienna aims at improving the cultural and social relations between the two countries. And yet one football match is sufficient to ruin all the labour of years. The first serious outbreak occurred on May 15, when the two national teams were playing against each other in Rome. Signor Mussolini and Prince Starhemberg (who is the Austrian supreme sports leader) were both present at the match. Nevertheless, the fighting on the field was so bad that when the Austrian team arrived home they- looked as if they had come back from a battlefield. Recently there was a “friendly" football match between the Italian team, “Triestina,” and the Austrian team, “Austria,” in Vienna. This match developed at times into a pitched battle, and the police repeatedly had to enter the field to separate the teams. Similar scenes occurred at a football match between an Italian and Hungarian team in Budapest. Indeed, it seems high time that Central and South-Eastern Europe returned to the old aims of sirnrt, which have been sadly lost sight of in recent years.

Austria’s international Soccer team which beat England 2-1 on May 10 at Vienna, is to wear a uniform off the field. This has been decreed by the Starhemberg front. The uniform was to be worn for the first time when the team visited Rome to play Italy. It consists of a short navy blue jacket with gold buttons, navy trousers, blue pill-box cap with blue peak. It is the uniform to be worn at the Olympic Games by the Austrian team. Hugo Meisl, Austria’s football dictator, will also wear it when he is with the team jn other countries.