Doug Ward

Sun 28 March 2021 12:27, UK

Czech lawyer Radek Pokorný has taken a swipe at the British press after the incidents that unfolded when Rangers lost to Slavia Prague in the Europa League last week.

Glen Kamara has accused Ondrej Kudela of racially abusing him in the Gers’ 2-0 defeat at Ibrox, in which Kemar Roofe was sent off for a horrible challenge on goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar.

We haven’t really seen much from the British press in adding to the allegations other than sharing stuff like what Steven Gerrard said when he said he “100 per cent” believes Kamara [Sky Sports].

But, according to Slavia’s lawyer Pokorný, the media in the UK has caused a situation in which Kudela cannot travel to Wales this week to play for the Czech Republic amid fears for his safety.

When asked why Kudela has not gone to Cardiff this weekend, Pokorný told Seznam Zpravy: “There are two reasons. 

“The first is permanent from the beginning. We want to get the case from the tabloid media to the level of facts. We are sure that this is the only way to show how the whole case really stands, and which will completely clear the name of Slavia and Ondřej Kúdela. 

“It turns out that we were victims and not perpetrators.

“The second reason is that the involvement of the British [press] has created an atmosphere full of untruths, which creates a dangerous environment for Mr Kudela.”

It seems that Pokorný has, first of all, claimed that Slavia are victims, despite one of their players being accused of racist abuse, and secondly, that the British press is sharing lies about the incident.

We’re struggling to think of any extra updates the British press has made about the incident other than what happened with Roofe and Kolar, which was correctly dealt with by the referee, and what happened with Kamara and Kudela.

However, then there’s the Czech press.

Seznam Zpravy seems to be the worst culprit with the Czech news outlet reporting a multitude of extra details about what happened at Ibrox last week – and what happened in the first leg of the Europe League last-16 tie.

Journalist Lukas Madl claimed Roofe “wanted to attack Kolar, injure him, take him out of the fight” as he suggested Rangers players had been “instructed” to rough up Slavia’s players by Gerrard.

Seznam Zpravy then reported “Gerrard did not behave like a sympathetic gentleman” in Prague in the first leg when he refused to sign autographs for Slavia’s management. Rangers players were also alleged to have taken too long on the pitch for their cooldown after the game and had to be ordered off by Slavia chief Jaroslav Tvrdík.

Another story by Seznam Zpravy claimed Kolar “was not provided with sufficient medical care” after Roofe’s red-card challenge on him.

Oh, and there was also a claim from Slavia player Alexander Bah, who said his team-mates “could not get into our locker room as it was surrounded by fans and some of their players” [Bold].

Pokorný’s claim about the British press is so hypocritical that all you can do is laugh at it.

Claim after claim has come from Prague ever since what happened at Ibrox last week, with their club, fans and the Czech media doing whatever they can to show they’re not the bad guys.

They keep pointing back to the Roofe incident and no Rangers fans honestly believe that was a fair challenge. We hopefully speak for every Gers fan when we saw that it was an awful challenge which should not have happened and Roofe was correctly sent off.

What’s happened since seems like a massive deflection effort to cover up the accusation that Kudela racially abused Kamara.

In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton has taken a swipe at the Gers after the Daily Record shared a story about Celtic.