ATHLETICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 July 1924, Page 7

ATHLETICS IN CENTRAL EUROPE

FOOTBALL THE FAVOURITE ' SPORT. One of the results of the Great War, due to the forced intermingling of the various natonalities which then took place, was the enormous impetus,, given to the pursuit of athletics in Central Europe (writes a London correspondent). First England and then the United States performed prodigies on the battlefields with troops which were at best half-trained levies. Rightly or wrongly, their facility of adaptation to the rigours of modern warfare was attributed to the peace-time cult of sport. British and American regiments seconded for service with Allied forces took their games with them, / arid, on the other hand, hundreds of thousands of enemy prisoners witnessed and often learned to appreciate, in particular, the attractions of football as a snort and a spectacle.

The traveller through Europe to-day cannot but be impressed by the number of “goal posts” observed en route, and, curiously enough, by the extent to which the game has taken root in Central Europe. Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians, Hungarians, Serbs, and Croatians have all adopted the Association game with, in many cases, a striking degree of proficiency. On a recent Sundav in Vienna 50,000 spectators paid no less than 600,000,000 Austrian kronen to watch a match between the Rapid and Amateure Clubs, which ended in a draw. English professional teams are invited to the leading European cities. it is natural that the Czechs should lead the new sporting movement. They are essentially a sturdy race of Spartan habits, and for years their national movement, denied the ■ possibility of political expression, showed itself in the Sokol societies, which in reality were an intense nationalistic propaganda, kept within the law as athletic organisations. When the moment arrived to throw off the Hapsburg yoke and proclaim the Czechoslovak Republic, the Czechs had jio ostensibly military forces. But tneir highly-trained and disciplined Sokols took possession of Prague and established a sort of military law throughout the seceding territory.

The Czechs had thus reached a high state of proficiency in general athletics and such sports as swimming and rowing. They turned their attention to football with brilliant success, and not only are their teams excellent exponents of the game, hut vast crowds assemble to witness the matches. The English professionals nowadays need to exert every elfort if they are to emerge victorious from their encounters. Sport has contributed not a little, to the restoration of friendly relations between the Central European peoples. At a time when the Governments were hostile towards each other the diplomacy regarded the various races as ready to resort to armed warfare. Dresden "and Vienna football teams would visit Prague, and Czecho-Slovak elevens would take the field in Germany and Austria, to receive the enthusiastic plaudits of their quondam enemies, and the entertainment of the rival teams, provided, even a couple of years ago, an occasion for the expression of amicable sentiments then entirely alien to the political relations between the respective countries.