President calls football team a flop
Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey has named the national football team her "flop of the year", according to interviews published in several newspapers.
She said that the performance of the football team, known as the “Nati”, was causing her concern. The squad has had a disappointing year, only impressing in two games in 2007.
“It’s all very well and good to have won the right to organise the Euro 2008 football championships, but our Nati really has to be up to it,” observed Calmy-Rey.
Switzerland is co-hosting the tournament with Austria, which means that the national team has automatically qualified.
Football experts are unimpressed with the squad’s performance this year. Switzerland have only won half of their ten games in the run-up to Euro 2008. Of their wins, they only impressed against Argentina and the Netherlands.
Experts say the side has not managed to rediscover the kind of form it demonstrated during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Calmy-Rey said that Alinghi, which won the America’s Cup sailing race in the summer for the second time, was her success of the year. “A group of farmers that win on the sea, that’s pretty amazing,” she said.
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