Prague  - While the skiing world praised the Nordic fest that returned to Eastern Europe for the first time in nearly four decades, the event received a much sterner report card at home.

"The Czechs showed that countries have a chance even if they haven't hosted big events before," said Gian-Franco Kasper, the president of the International Ski Federation.

His statement sharply contrasted a headline in the Czech press on Monday that billed the two-week Nordic ski championships in northern town of Liberec "a dead end."

The bad press has doomed the event since the summer of 2007 when an ugly row erupted over who will organize it.

Katerina Neumannova, a former Czech world and Olympic cross-country champion, emerged victorious but unpopular from the dispute.

The championships were attacked for the choice of location as Liberec's altitude is low and warm weather can easily ruin the cross-country competition course in the town district of Vesec.

Heavy snowfall rewarded Neumannova's team for snow woes during test events, but the bad press has never ceased.

First, the Czech newspapers noted weaker-than-expected attendance, which improved towards the end of the two-week event.

The organizers said that a record of 37,000 people made it to the men's relay on Friday, a figure questioned by the Czech press.

Kasper said the attendance was good for a country that has only one cross-country star, the 15km silver medallist, Lukas Bauer.

Moreover, skiing insiders said that more visitors flocked to Liberec than to the worlds in Sapporo, Japan, two years ago.

But local businessmen were disappointed that few foreigners made it to their pubs, souvenir stalls and overpriced hotels.

The press also slammed the organizers for selling pricey tickets for a steep, snow-covered slope, which made watching ski-jumping events inconvenient.

The event's reputation suffered further when - as the championships were already under way - the organizers asked the regional government for additional funds for accompanying cultural events.

The Mlada Fronta Dnes daily called "the manner in which the state had been milked in the case of Liberec was remarkably perverse."

The taxpayers were initially promised that the Nordic celebration will not cost them anything, while the bill climbed to more than 1.6 billion koruny (71 million dollars).

The costs combined with low altitude prompted some to say that Liberec put on the one-and-only world championships.

"We all know what was happening regarding the economics. We all know that Vesec will disappear into thin air," the Hospodarske Noviny daily cited Czech Republic's chief cross-country official Petr Honzl.

Scathing news reports are to be expected long after championships' end, as the police is investigating the use of some of the taxpayers' money by the city and the local Technical University.

By then the fans of Nordic skiing enjoy their next fest that is not likely to cause such a stir.

After two takes in new territories, the worlds are slated to return to the Nordic-skiing mecca of Oslo's Holemenkollen in 2011. (dpa)