Austrians Attempting To Get Their Team Thrown Out Of Euro08

For a team which is pretty much the favorite in everybody’s minds to finish 16th in the tournament, this probably won’t help inspire a Cinderella run: 10,000 Austrians have signed a petition asking that the team politely pull out of the tournament so that they don’t embarrass themselves.

Ouch.

Worst of all this campaign was started by the son of a former Austrian international, Michael Kreiss.

“I am not worried about the Austrian team embarrassing themselves. I’m fully expecting it.”

By FIFA’s rankings (usually bullshit, but we’ll take what we can get), Austria is by far (far far) the worst team in the competition. The lowest ranked non-host is Poland, who sits at 27th, while Switzerland is at 48th and Austria pulls up in the caboose at 101st. One behind Algeria.

But still, have a little pride, especially if your father played for the team. This causes just as much, if not more, embarrassment for a team that isn’t expected to do anything at the tournament. They’re at least expected to have some home support. At least give them that.

The national courts seem to agree, and have fined them for “misuse of the national coat of arms” and damaging the country’s reputation to the tune of 1500 euros.

Guess that home-country advantage isn’t as cozy as it seems.