Chelsea keeper Petr Cech was caught holding a book club meeting with six books in a hotel after losing to Germany in the Euro qualifiers. Cech, and four other players from the Czech national squad are guilty of smuggling the books into their room in Prague on Saturday. Rosicky, Jiranek, Ujfalusi, Polak and Cech claimed the books were "trashy romantic comedies to get them in the mood for a party".
The Czech FA, reportedly spurred on by a furious team coach, ignored the excuses, and imposed a harsh £250,000 fine on the whole team and banned them from reading books.
Cech told a Press conference: "We have been correctly punished. Footballers should be up all night partying with hookers, not reading the works of Shakespeare and Sartre. We are very sorry."
The bookworm claims followed an investigation by The Spoof. We caught the players in Prague's five star Staropramen Hotel after the match. Our intrepid journalist put on a beret and polo neck sweater, and posed as a literary bore "Cech answered the door while the other players read and smoked pipes behind him.
The reporter was told to leave but when he returned later with a photographer one of the players exclaimed with a look of incredulity: "Damn and blast, if we're photographed in our slippers and dressing gowns reading Sartre, we'll be the laughing stock of Europe."
All the players deny wearing spectacles, dressing gowns, cardigans, and slippers, smoking pipes, reading, and discussing literature when they should have been partying.
