Vilnius strip show hooligans

May 07, 2008
In cooperation with BNS

VILNIUS- In this bizarre twist of the usual hooliganism story, it turns out that not only fans get crazy, but team members as well. The Austrian national rugby team stripped naked in Vilnius last weekend to compensate for their stunning 48-0 defeat. Little did they know however, that there was video footage of the event, and was of course posted on the internet a few days later.

 The video was put out by a blogger and picked up by Delfi, a Lithuanian news portal.

 The video shows the team of 20 men singing and stripping naked on a street in central Vilnius. The public’s reaction to the event wasn’t that of shock, but mild amusement, and onlookers reportedly applauded, and then went about their business.

 The president of the Lithuanian Rugby Federation was quoted as saying "Yes, these were the men we played against on Saturday ... I guess the defeat could have prompted them to do that,"

 The Vilnius police chief reportedly called the strip show and act of hooliganism, but no charges were pressed, the team flew home, and the video will most likely live on in the Internet.