Ski championships on slippery slope

All eyes are on the Czech Republic's biggest sports event of the year, the World Nordic Ski Championships in Liberec, which kicks off Feb. 18. The championship was again drawing negative headlines a week before its start, after the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) announced Feb. 12 that major discrepancies had been found in financing the development of the event's facilities.

"Some works were paid for despite the fact that they were never carried out. Particular documents and invoices were intentionally misleading or untrue," NKÚ Chairman František Dohnal said.

NKÚ carried out an audit in which the Education, Youth and Sports Ministry, Liberec Town Hall and also Liberec Technical University (TUL) were involved. Dohnal said that all three institutions submitted incomplete or false invoices.

Among the most serious failures of the ministry was a failure to follow guidelines for funding set at the very beginning of preparations. As a result, the championship's budget ballooned. Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said in mid-December that the government would pitch in an additional 189 million Kč ($8.6 million) to championship organizers to avert the event's collapse. All told, the government has paid some 1.5 billion Kč to the Liberec championship organizers. The overall budget for the event should amount to about 2 billion Kč. Liberec Town Hall paid 380 million Kč, and the Liberec region added 146 million Kč.

Meanwhile, TUL hired an external company that it controversially empowered to do "anything." The company requested bigger subsidies than originally planned, and the university approved invoices for work that has never been done.

Liberec Town Hall also paid for work that was never carried out. Also, the NKÚ said, Town Hall avoided calling several tenders by breaking down particular high-value single projects into smaller ones. Liberec Deputy Mayor Ondrej Červinka says the projects had to be broken down so that the infrastructure would be developed in time.

Dohnal said his authority initiated legal action against the three institutions.

Silver slopes

Elsewhere in Czech skiing there is more pleasant news. Downhill skier Šárka Záhrobská won a silver medal in Feb. 14's women's slalom at the World Alpine Championships in Val d'Isere, France. Záhrobská entered the race as the defending champion from the previous 2007 World Championship in Aare, Sweden. Despite finishing behind Germany's Maria Riesch, she seemed satisfied with being runner-up.

"I wished to perform as well as I possibly could, and this is what I did," Záhrobská said after the race. She became the first woman in 41 years to win a medal in women's slalom in three consecutive World Championships. In 2005, she won a bronze medal in the championship in Santa Caterina, Italy.

Záhrobská ranked fourth after the first round. For the second round, it was her father who set the slalom poles on the slope. Still, Záhrobská said, this did not help her climb to the top of the final standings.

"The first round was rather rhythmic and easy, and the second was much more difficult," Záhrobská said. "Of course, I know how my father tends to set the poles, but every slope is quite different, so it was not any major factor. The second round was difficult for me as well as my opponents."

The rumor mill

Apart from scandals, rumors are also keeping Czech sports fans busy in February.

Rumors that hockey star Jaromír Jágr could move from Russian Continental Hockey League's Avangard Omsk back to North America's National Hockey League further intensified after a blog on the Edmonton Journal Web site suggested that the 37-year-old Czech winger could soon join the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers are among the organizations that tried to lure Jágr last summer, before he left the New York Rangers for Avangard Omsk. The Oilers reportedly then offered Jágr a one-year contract worth $7 million.

Although Oilers boss Kevin Lowe denied his organization was working on bringing over the Czech player - as Jágr himself denied in the Czech media - the local hockey community began speculating how much his possible return to the NHL could weaken the Czech team's chances at the World Championship this spring. Jágr is expected to join the team for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In another rumor, the Czech and Austrian soccer communities were speculating about Karel Brückner's dismissal as head coach of the Austrian national team. Brückner's team was beaten by Sweden 2-0 in a Feb. 12 game in Graz. It was the fourth loss in the last five games for Brückner, who took over the Austrian team last summer. Pressures calling for his dismissal are growing in Austria, and rumors have it that Brückner's swan song will be Austria's qualifier against Romania April 1. Should Austria lose once again, Brückner's days at the helm of the Austrian team would most likely come to an end.

František Bouc can be reached at
fbouc@praguepost.com