The Ukrainian flag, which Czech fans hoisted at the World Hockey Championships on Saturday during a match with the Norwegians, did not pass the organizers. Supporters from Ostrava, however, did not let themselves be discouraged and prepared a text pledge for the match against the USA.
Tampere (from our newsletter) – A group of Czech supporters has decided to express support for Ukraine, on whose territory Russian President Vladimir Putin started a war in February, already during Saturday’s duel of the Czech national team at the World Cup against Norway.
The Ukrainian flag, which fans hung between two Czechs in the corner sector of the arena, was confiscated by the Finnish organizers. “Originally they didn’t tell us anything, they just took off the flag,” says one of the group’s members, Lumír Bednář.
Later, the fans received an official but somewhat strange explanation. The flag was withdrawn due to Ukraine’s non-participation in the tournament. However, as the Slovak journalist Martin Toth-Vaňo pointed out on Twitter, the Lithuanian flag did not bother the organizers during the match of the second group in Helsinki. Although even Lithuania does not start at the World Cup elite divisions.
“We thought we would hoist the flag of Rwanda or the Faroe Islands and see if anyone would come to us,” Bednář smiles. “Or we were still dealing with ‘Lenin, get up, Putin’s gone crazy,'” he adds.
In the end, the text image of the Ukrainian flag won. With the English inscriptions “blue color” in the upper half and “yellow color” in the lower half of the flag.
“The best came to us and we wanted to awaken the organizers’ imagination,” explains Bednar. They go to the world championships with the Ostrava group “Chacharů” regularly. Even the most famous Czech supporter, Fantomas, encouraged them against the Americans in their cauldron.
Already on Saturday, fans also had Czech flags with slogans associated with the Soviet occupation in 1968 – “Go home, Ivan” and “Nataša is waiting for you”. They also had Czechoslovak jerseys made with these inscriptions and numbers 1968, 2022.
“In today’s situation in Ukraine, we see a parallel with the year 1968 in our country. At that time, our fathers were left alone, today the whole world stands behind Ukraine. We are pleased because the aggressor does not give in,” concludes Bednář.
