Coach: Wives, girlfriends to blame for Kiev's form
KIEV: Dynamo Kiev's coach blamed his players' girlfriends and wives for the team's performances this season and ordered the squad to a training camp away from any distractions, the club's website said.
Dynamo, last year's champion for the 12th time since 1992, has started the season poorly, spending most of August and September languishing in the bottom half of the 16-team league.
On Saturday, its recovery continued when it beat Zarja Lugansk 2-1 to move to third behind arch-rival Shakhtar Donetsk and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Asked by a female reporter at a news conference whether the performance was shameful for the reigning champion, coach Josef Sabo said: "Personally, I'm not ashamed because I see how in a short time they have made very good progress, because I have taken them away from their women, from their wives.
"We went to the (training) base, because women in football are a scourge. They do not understand that men need to work, that they have a hard job to do," he said.
Dynamo has also made a poor start to its Champions League campaign, losing 2-0 at Roma and succumbing 2-1 at home to Sporting Lisbon.
Agencies
(China Daily 10/10/2007 page24)
