SILVIA MÉNDEZ / AHORACANADA.COM
En referencia al partido de fútbol entre Uruguay y Corea, en el Mundial de Sudáfrica 2010, Kelly se mostró abiertmente crítico al equipo uruguayo y escribió comentarios ofensivos a los uruguayos.
"...Corea, en estos momentos estarán celosos. Claro, un error tonto y un gol casual les costaron el partido que dominaron durante la mayor parte. Eso duele. Pero ustedes tienen una economía fuerte y floreciente. Las brillantes luces de Seúl lo iluminan todo. Además, tienen unos vecinos excéntricos que, en comparación, los hace a ustedes el paraíso de la zona... Uruguay sólo tiene canibalismo, resultado de un accidente aéreo", lee el artículo en inglés.
Ahora, por correo electrónico y en las comunidades sociales como Facebook y Twitter, varios uruguayos solicitan que Kelly se retracte públicamente. Además, han puesto a circular una petición en línea, en la que solicitan que el diario se disculpe por el artículo.
"Exigimos, que el diario Toronto Star recapacite sobre este tema, reconozca públicamente el error cometido al haber publicado dichos ofensivos comentarios, y que ofrezca una pública y visible disculpa a todos los millones de personas a los que dichos comentarios afectaron", asegura la petición.
Uruguay, una gran nación
En el marco de las celebraciones por el 185 Aniversario de la Independencia de la República Oriental de Uruguay, en LIUNA Local 183, el cónsul Fernando López Fabregat, dejó claro que Uruguay es una gran nación llena de orgullo y que actos como éste no minimizan el talento y honor de su gente.
Al momento, casi 5 mil personas han firmado la solicitud que explica que el comentario de Kelly fue "tan ofensivo como ignorante", pues pretende ridiculizar un tema tan delicado como el trágico evento de la caída de un avión en los Andes de Chile, que transportaba un grupo de jóvenes deportistas uruguayos. "Dicho hecho histórico ha sido un paradigma único de vida, de amistad y de sobrevivencia humana. Este periodista con mala intención pretende confundir y sembrar el odio entre sus lectores hacia el Uruguay; una nación que ha hecho innumerables y notorias contribuciones a la humanidad a través de los años", agrega la petición en línea.
Para obtener mayor información al respecto y participar en la firma de la petición haga clic en http://www.petitiononline.com/celeste1/p...
Artículo en Toronto Star:
Uruguay strikes another blow for South America
June 26, 2010
Cathal Kelly
Uruguay players celebrate after advancing to the World Cup quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over South Korea.
Korea, you may be feeling a little jealous of Uruguay right now. Sure, a silly mistake and a wonder goal cost you a game you controlled huge swaths of. That hurts.
But you've got a powerhouse economy, the bright lights of Seoul and kooky neighbours who make you look golden by comparison. Uruguay's got plane-crash-related cannibalism.
In fairness, they needed an international image refresher more than you needed the quarter-finals.
Now when we think of Uruguay, we think of late strikes, grim defence and post-goal celebrations that involve trampling photographers.
They're not quite Brazil, are they? But something is clearly going on in South America, whose teams are threatening to overrun this tournament.
There's been all sorts of nonsense tossed out as managers and players try to define exactly what sort of continental mojo is animating Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.
Earlier in the week, Argentine manager Diego Maradona ratcheted up his Cliché-o-Matic 9000, which belched out black smoke and words like "fiery" and "desire."
Yesterday, he got closer to the nub of things, when he approvingly noted the assembly-line relationship South America enjoys with the European leagues.
"We'll never be more of a power than Europe," Maradona said ahead of his team's game Sunday with Mexico. "The best prize South America has is to know that we give all the clubs in the world great players, . . . And (we ask) that when those players get to the national teams (the clubs) return them to us with the time and care with which we hand them over to them."
Italy and France will be reading that and wincing. Both nations are about to begin corrosive and ultimately pointless investigations into why they failed here. They failed because they played poorly. That's not going to stop a politician
with a head of steam, of course.
In the case of Italy, you can already see who the scapegoat will be — those foreigners Maradona's talking about. On Friday, Roberto Calderoli, a far-right government minister, called out Serie A's "luxury immigrants" as the cause of Italy's demise.
"Italy's premature elimination is merely the result of an insane sports policy which has seen the league, the cup and the Champions League being won by teams who do not have a single Italian, including the coach," Calderoli said, referring to European champions Inter Milan, who do not feature any
Italians.
As usual for this kind of idiot, he confuses the effect with the cause. Stuff Inter Milan with Italians and, as a result, they wouldn't have won anything. Happy now?
Like certain types of melons, Italian footballers don't travel well. They stay home. So Italy's roster has always been drawn from Italy's top league. It used to work. It doesn't anymore because the Italian team is now drawn from the bad part of the Italian league.
Likewise, England's team is made up entirely of Premier League players. Germany's whole team plays in the Bundesliga.
Forget about 4-4-this or 3-4-that. This is the European style of football. Build a league around your own players, then build your team out of that league.
That reliance on in-breeding used to work. Italy, Germany and England share eight World Cup titles. Now they've all hit a T- junction and gone down the road to stagnation.
Chile, for instance, features 23 players playing in 14 different domestic leagues. From Turkey to Russia to the United Arab Emirates. Uruguay's roster is spread out over 11 nations. Paraguay — 10. Brazil — 8. Argentina — 7.
This is the secret to South American success — diversity; an openness to new systems; a team built out of countrymen, rather than domestic rivals.
A continental preoccupation with playing beautifully doesn't hurt either.
This is South America's year. Once it's over, it's going to be interesting to see how much that damages the European footballing psyche. More importantly, what are they going to do about it?
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