This post is about football, the Euro
2012 championships to be more specific, and as I’ve never been a huge fan of
football, I apologise if some of my facts are incorrect.
Tonight I watched BBC's Panorama which
investigated in to the racist violence in Polish and Ukrainian football and in
the frankest way, I was disgusted. I have never been one for violence, in fact
I hate it with a passion and anyone that I call a friend, will never be
involved in mindless, day to day violence. I understand that maybe after a few
drinks, things can get a bit heated in a pub or club where somebody
accidentally knocked in to someone else, and that person got a bit mouthy to
which the other person retaliated so on, so on, but even then, I will always
walk away. I hate it.
Panorama called the programme: Euro
2012: Stadiums of Hate and it is truly what these places
are. The first 15 minutes of the programme was eas(ier) to watch, horrible
to listen to though that these people in these countries treat football players,
and innocent fan’s the way they do. Monkey chants at black players and their
families, anti-Jew language, Hitler salutes and beating up random Asian men
that were merely watching their home team play a game to name the obvious.
About half way through the programme,
they showed a clip of a group of fans, bored of chanting and abusing players
who saw a group of Asian boys (I use the word boys to describe them because
they looked as if they were in their early twenties, not men that might defend
themselves). They ran over to this group of boys and pulled them down from
their seats and started kicking and hitting them, only for people that had been
sitting around them the whole time, to join in. To make things even more
sickening, is that these Asian boys were supporting the same team as these
thugs that took it upon themselves to make the decision that
they shouldn't be in the stadium. I found it so disturbing to watch,
that I had to leave the room – seeing their faces of fear about what was happening
to them brought tears to my eyes and I couldn’t watch the rest of the
programme.
If this is clearly public knowledge
that the fans in these countries act like this on a regular basis how have UEFA
allowed these nations to host this huge football event? They have sent out a
public warning to all black and Asian fans to keep a close eye on each other
and to stay out of trouble as they will be targeted, or better still, stay at
home. If you have to send a message like that out, what is it saying about
these countries.
Even if they up their security for the
games in the stadium (which doesn’t seem to help their local games as they just
turn on the police when they have abused everyone else in the stadium), there’s
no saying what could happen outside away from the games. Would you want to
spend your time away constantly looking over your shoulder?
With football already being a rowdy
sport as it is with players such as John Terry and Joey Barton under
investigation for racism and violence, this behaviour should not be added to
the equation. Fans are going to go over there and get riled up and join in with
the fighting. Football fans already have a bad rep compared to other sport fans
such as rugby, and I feel this is just going to blow up in UEFA’s faces.
To anyone that uses their fists to start or finish
an argument, or because someone looked at you the wrong way, or aren’t the
right colour in your eyes, then you are a thug. You are scum and it really
upsets me that there are some people out there, who feel it is an acceptable
thing to do.
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