The Argentine hockey player filmed doing step-ups on a British war memorial on the Falkland Islands has been dropped from the country’s squad ahead of the London Olympics.


Fernando Zylberberg trains on the island's Great War Memorial, which honours British sailors who died in World War

By Barney Henderson, and Jonathan Gilbert in Buenos Aires

4:55PM BST 09 May 2012

Fernando Zylberberg starred in the government video which was first aired last week and has been widely condemned as the last attempt by Cristina Kirchner’s government to attack Britain over the disputed territory.

Set to stirring patriotic music and featuring scenes of Zylberberg running and training around famous Falklands landmarks, the video ends with the slogan: “To compete on English soil, we are training on Argentine soil.”

Zylberberg, 34, who has captained the national hockey side in the past and appeared at two Olympic Games has been left out of the 18-man squad to play in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia.

It means the player will avoid a potentially fiery meeting against the Great Britain team, which is also competing in Malaysia.

The event is the team’s final warm-up event before the Olympics and means that Zylberberg will be unlikely to make the squad for London.

His absence from the squad has been attributed to “sporting reasons” by the coach, Pablo Rossi, who claimed Zylberberg “had not been able to complete all the necessary steps in pre-season”.

However, the video, lauded by Mrs Kirchner, has been met with international condemnation.

The Argentina Olympic Committee (COA) has distanced itself from the campaign, issuing a statement on Tuesday that “using the Olympic Games to make political gestures of any kind is not acceptable”.

There is speculation that Zylberberg has been dropped to avoid adverse attention on the team and a potential media frenzy when players land in London in July.

He was not amongst the Argentine players to attend a reception at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires on Tuesday night.

He has also been the subject of online threats, with one commenter writing on a Facebook page: “I’m tempted to find out when the Argentine hockey team is due to arrive in the UK so I can throw eggs at Zylberberg.”

Zylberberg filmed the advert in secret after flying to the Falklands under the pretext he was running a marathon.

In scenes reminiscent of the film Rocky, Zylberberg carries out a set of dips on benches outside the Globe Tavern, then runs past a British red telephone box.

He then carries out step-ups on the islands’ Great War Memorial honouring British sailors who died battling the German fleet in 1914.

Zylberberg has said the advert was supposed to convey his country’s feeling over the islands.

“The message is that to every Argentine the islands belong to Argentina. To me to be training in any other province or to do it over the islands is the same,” he said.

The clip was shown on May 2 – the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the General Belgrano, which killed 323 troops, nearly half of Argentina’s total 649 losses during the Falklands conflict.

On Tuesday, Mrs Kirchner, who has stepped up anti-British rhetoric in recent months defended the video, claiming that “creativity should be recognised and applauded”.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Argentina’s attempt to misuse the London Olympics for political purposes was a “rather sad stunt”.

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP which owns Young and Rubicam, the agency behind the stunt, said he was “appalled and embarrassed by it”.

A source at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, told the Daily Telegraph: "Under no circumstances will we be pulling the advert. We are pleased with the impact it has had
Falkland Islands

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9253986/Hockey-player-in-controversial-Falklands-advert-to-miss-London-Olympics.html