Political storm as Juve's Capello praises Spain's Franco

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2006

MADRID (AFP) — Comments by Juventus coach Fabio Capello praising late Spanish military dictator General Francisco Franco have provoked uproar with a Catalan politician on Wednesday calling for the European Commission to get involved.

The Catalan Green Party (ICV) said its lawmaker in the European Parliament, Raul Romeva, had presented a question to the parliamentary register after former Real Madrid coach Capello told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday that what he liked in Spain was "the order Franco left behind."

"Raul Romeva has denounced these declarations which constitute a 'regrettable apologia of fascism' and asks himself what would have happened if, instead of the fascist regime of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), Capello had praised Adolf Hitler or...