As we anxiously await the start of the tournament tomorrow, disturbing news has emerged from an open practice session held by Holland.
The Guardian’s Daniel Taylor has the details:
The problems occurred as the players began the session by jogging a lap of the pitch only to be greeted at one end of the stadium with monkey noises and loud jeers. On the second circuit, they were even louder and it was then the players decided not to go around again. “At least now we know what we can encounter,” the Holland coach, Bert van Marwijk, said with heavy cynicism. “Very atmospheric.”
Krakow isn’t a small city – it’s the second largest in Poland. It wasn’t a couple of fans, it was hundreds.The timing of this couldn’t be worse for an organization (UEFA) that has already faced criticism for their plans to combat racial idiocy in the stands.
Ironically the Dutch team had visited the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp earlier in the day.
The incident took place at Stadion Miejski, the home of Wisla Krakow – one of Poland’s biggest clubs. A group of thugs who associate themselves with Wisla Krakow are featured in the video above. Let’s hope this doesn’t foreshadow things to come.
same crap is also taking place in Ukraine
bravo UEFA bravo
Good job, good effort UEFA.
It is simple to combat racism…. do not award any UEFA or FIFA related events to countries that have incidences of racism towards players.
Countries that have fans hurl racial abuse at players forfeit the game, 2-0, deduct 2 additional points, and also must play their next home match on the road – NOT at a neutral site.
Good, so tell Scotland to drop out of Euro 2020 bidding because the Glasgow bigot-fest is a black mark on the sport
Do not award UEFA or FIFA related events to countries that have incidences of racism toward players? So, basically, award no events to no country on the face of the planet?
If Poland and Ukraine are behaving like this, i sense 2018 Russia will be “off-the-chain” bad.
I wouldn’t expect much of this in Russia, the state’s pretty strong and they do a good job of covering up PR stuff like this. People with similar sentiments to this article for the most part will be under control.
I would expect a lot of this in Russia. The state is getting weaker and weaker. Putin opponents are getting stronger by the day. And while they may be good at tamping down local unrest (which they’re OK at), it’ll be a lot more difficult halting the flow of information from international press agencies.
Russia 2018 will not be fun for visiting fans. Not my problem.
Besides, Putin thrives partly because of the racist asshole demographic. So either the state is strong and racist asshole will have free rein or the state is weak…and racist assholes will have free rein.
http://www.euronews.com/sport/1542680-dutch-wowed-and-cowed-by-krakow-support/
This tournament is going to be marred by racism I feel. I think there will be a mid-match fiasco, that won’t be handled properly. I would LOVE to see 2 QF opposing teams pull out of the match BEFORE kick off, to prove a point to UEFA. They need to take charge – this is a disgrace.
Does anyone wonder how stuff like Auschwitz happened all those years ago? Probably not anymore.
Disgusting that incidents like this are still taking place in 2012. The response from UEFA that they would card a player who left the pitch because he was getting abuse directed at himself was disgraceful. Everyone has an opion on the guy, but Mario Balotelli was 100% right to say he’d walk off, and everyone should support any player that did.
Let’s all hope we get a great tournament that isnt ruined by idiots in the crowd.
The precedent has been set with the whole John Terry still having a career thing, along with the awarding of the tournament to two countries with an obvious right-wing ultra presence. Russia 2018 is going to be funtastic too!
I’ve been following polish soccer very closer as it is my background. Wisla Krakow is my favourite team, and you cant comment on a story without looking at what happened in the past. In a game against Twente, a dutch team, earlier this year the Wisla Krakow fans and players were abused by the Twente fans. This included racist chants directed toward the black Wisla players. Yes, they have black players too. Now, this was the supporters of Wisla’s chance to get back at Netherlands fans and their players.
So i don’t think these fans are racist. They dont cheer against the black players on their own team, they are just trying to get in the head of the other team, but its unfortunate that it has to happen like this.
GO POLAND!
Yes, combat racism with more racism!
I cannot believe how ppl can make such opinions. There was c.a. 25 thousand of fans – the small group of idiots was behaving very bad – but in every country you can find such “elements”. It is a shame for Krakow – my home city, but the behavior of some media like bbc is disgusting too.
To wszystko kłamstawa a wy to łykacie jak młode pelikany.
na terningu było 25 000 kibiców i kilkudziesięciu dziennikarzy holenderski i dzięsiątki z innych krajów.
Jak to możliwe, że ani jeden dzienniakrz nie nagrał ani jednego filmu na którym widoczne były by te okrzyki?
Żaden z dziennikarzy nie zauważył tego?
Dlaczego na konferencji prasowej, która odbyła się zaraz po treningu żaden z dzienikarzy nie zapytał o ten incydent?
Wyssane z palca bzdury i tyle.