Czech hockey coach prepared to resign over team’s failure in Beijing

The Czech national team’s hockey coach Filip Pešán has admitted the possibility that he may resign in the wake of the team’s poor performance at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, where, for the first time in the country’s modern history, the team failed to make the quarterfinals. On the team’s arrival back in Prague, Pešán said he was ready to accept responsibility for the failure, if such a move was seen as beneficial for the team. He said he would discuss the matter with the head of the Czech Hockey Association Tomáš Král. The hockey team’s poor performance at the Olympics has sparked a nationwide debate about the state of Czech hockey.