Czech football team of greater interest to world's media than governmental crisis

• Football players contribute more than politicians to increasing awareness of the Czech Republic
• Indian and Malayan media, among others, mention the Czech Republic in connection with football

Prague, 9 June 2004 - Five times as many articles appeared in the world's press during a single month (1 June - 5 July) about the Czech football team than about the Czech government and its crisis during a similar period (1 June - 8 July). This is the result of a special survey conducted by Newton Information Technology for T-Mobile, the general partner of the Czech national football team.
Speaking in concrete figures, 1,206 articles were published about the football team during the above period, whereas only 246 articles about the government and the governmental crisis appeared. Overall, 3,925 articles were published about the Czech Republic from 1 June till 2 July, which is more than twice as many as in the individual months of the first quarter (see the table).

Major world's publications
Topic	Period	Number of articles
Articles about the Czech Republic	leden 2004	1 809
Articles about the Czech Republic	únor 2004	1 995
Articles about the Czech Republic	březen 2004	1 957
Articles about the Czech Republic	1.6. - 2.7.2004	3 925
Articles mentioning the Czech Republic and EURO 2004	1.6. - 5.7.2004	1 206
Articles mentioning the Czech Republic and Vladimir Spidla	1.6. - 8.7.2004	246

"Football has proved to be a phenomenon which helps create permanent awareness of our country. The articles concerning football did not just state the results but their tone was clearly favourable to the Czech national team's players and, above all, to our country," says Jirí Hájek, press spokesman for T-Mobile. In terms of length, articles on football players outdid short information on political topics. In addition, political topics from a small country in Central Europe hardly ever have a chance to get into the papers in countries such as, for example, those in the Far East.

Topic: Euro 2004 and the Czech Republic

Media*	Headlines (examples)
The Express	Czech mates go head to head
Sunday Mercury	Karel makes Czech bounce
China Daily	Germans and Czechs look sharp in warm-up wins
The Gazette	Czechs make quarters
The Gazette	Czechs win thriller to advance: Come?
Mail on Sunday	It's Czech mate Smicer
The Observer	Baros upsets Orange order as Czech become first to qualify
Scotland on Sunday	Czech out the comeback kings
The Sunday Independent	Czech mate for Holland
Sunday Mirror	Euro 2004: Czech bounce back in thriller?
Sunday Mercury	Czech Republic's Milan Baros celebrates after equalising against Holland
Birmingham Evening Mail	Football: Euro 2004: Czech looking to start in style
The Statesman (India)	Czech cautious after Greek feat
New Straits Times (Malaysia)	Nedved the maestro
Daily Record	Euro 2004: Czechs are now too hot to handle
The People	Hotline - Fulham Czech out Smicer

*  The group of periodicals from which the relevant information was selected includes the internationally known publications which have gained great prestige thanks particularly to the high quality and reliability of their content. Among them are major world class newspapers, magazines and expert economic publications which enjoy great trust from readers due to their precise and professional news coverage. This is a group of 200 major publications such as:
The Banker
BBC World Wide Monitoring - International Reports
Birmingham Post
The Boston Globe
Financial Times
The Jerusalem Post
Los Angeles Times
Miami Herald
The Moscow Times
New Yorker
The New York Times
The Nikkei Weekly
Time Magazine
The Washington Post

 

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.