Ukraine's punishment for neo-Nazi chants a worry for the global game

Ukraine will play their match against Poland at the Metalist Stadium in front of empty stands

“Only forceful intervention can ensure that games are stopped, hate mongers expelled and prosecuted, clubs disqualified and fined”- Simon Wiesenthal Centre-Europe

A lot have been done and dealt with to eradicate racism and anti-Semitism from the beautiful game yet a substantial result in this regard is still to be desired as football games are slowly being turned into rallying grounds for hate rather than celebration of fan spectacle. The game which for over the years has taught us respect for opponents, loyalty for club and country, camaraderie and respect for people of all castes and creed is now in danger of being drawn into an age old conflict of good against evil. FIFA, in association with respective continental associations, have taken harsh steps in recent years to deal with the problem but the fact is in front of everyone concerned with the eradication of racism.

Racial hatred persists and with each action that FIFA and UEFA take against the guilty, it seems the racists get even more motivation to carry out their ‘criminal activities’. Then what is the remedy? FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter has personally taken initiatives to stamp out racism yet has never taken the most extreme step to throw out a member nation from any international competition. Warnings have been provided with promise of sterner sanctions but to no avail.

The problem is none more acute than in the UEFA region where Nazi atrocities against Jews during the course of a tempestuous period in Europe still send a shiver down the spine of the modern thinking world. While the continent is a driving force behind the development of football at grass roots levels, yet racism casts a dark shadow on what Europe have to offer to the world game for which it is so renowned for.

With European sides making the majority of a World Cup contingent, UEFA has an added responsibility that the organisation is still being revered in the eyes of a global audience for many years to come yet Michel Platini and company are still helpless when governments of member countries fail to track down and educate their own citizens from causing such humiliation to young football players of varying religion and caste at football grounds.

Politics play a huge role in the aggravation of these dastardly acts. FIFA’s handing of punishment to the Ukraine national team for raising neo-Nazi chants in a world cup qualifier against San Marino earlier in September have not come as a surprise after an incident in Euro 2012 at the same venue in Lviv saw the German football federation fined for the gross misconduct of its fans in a group game against Denmark. While the fine was minimal, UEFA needed to be active in its investigation of why the incidents happened and what led a few German fans wearing neo-Nazi symbols in front of a global audience. If UEFA and the Ukrainian government had been a bit proactive right after 2012 in preventing the recurrence of the same type of incident on a larger scale, the unfortunate scenes in the San Marino game in Lviv could have been avoided.

Paulo Di Canio during his playing days

Now FIFA have taken a tougher stand and Ukraine would be playing a very important home qualifier against Poland in October behind closed doors. Neo-Nazi sentiments stem from deep rooted beliefs that for a sporting organisation like UEFA or even FIFA it is difficult to put an end to it. German Government sources admit that the curse, even seven decades after the Holocaust, has been troubling the country with football matches being used as platforms to preach Adolf Hitler’s hate. Clubs such as Energie Cottbus, FC Kaiserslautern have done a wonderful job by introducing tough measures to contain this evil yet the ugly head always seems to show up now and then sending shock waves across the football fraternity.

Donald Snyder, a veteran and respected NBC news producer, quotes Winfried Schreiber, head of the Brandenburg Branch of German government’s intelligence service;

“Again and again we see neo-Nazi presence in [sports] fan clubs and my office asks that action be taken against them,” said Winfriede Schreiber. “For example, we see the fan club in [the German city] Cottbus consisting of a lot of neo-Nazis. We asked the football club to do something about this.”

“The neo-Nazis now look like everyone else,” Schreiber added. “Gone are the jackboots and black leather jackets that used to make it easy to expose them. Now they blend into the local population.”

For more on Donald Snyder’s views on racism in football, click on the following here

Why is racism always a news week in and week out in Italy? The Serie A seems to be engulfed in a circle of racial related violence and incidents that have seen teams such as Lazio, AC Milan and Inter Milan fined for ugly chants against black players. It is of no surprise that in Italy, like Germany, the ugly head of Benito Mussolini’s message pops up in places such as Verona, Chievo, Milan, Rome, Siena and various other places where fascist minded people use football as a platform to make themselves heard. Roman club Lazio were found guilty four times last season by UEFA for committing racial crimes and a Serie A match between AC Milan and Roma was stopped for a few minutes last season after Roma’s away fans targeted Milan’s black players at the San Siro that prompted Francesco Totti to complain to the match officials and ultimately speak to the Roma fans.

And when one sees players like Kevin Prince Boateng walking off a pre-season game for AC Milan and when players like Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba, Angelo Ogbonna and other black players being humiliated on a regular basis, it is desired that football authorities in Italy take drastic actions along with UEFA to kick out the problem for good. When this is a regular headache to deal with in Italy, UEFA should have taken sterner actions against the national team of the Azzurri’s stature to provide a huge statement to these blunt hooligans that their actions will not be tolerated anymore and their country as a whole would suffer but as of now Italy stand well on course to qualify for the 2014 World Cup without any long term sanctions. Wake up UEFA!

“We heard it, they’re ignorant,” said Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba after the Supercoppa final against Lazio in Rome. “What can I do? I’m alone against 30,000 fans. They do that even though there are black players in their team.

“It’s also a lack of respect towards their own players. It’s really not nice to come to a football match and hear those sorts of things, but I’m a player, I concentrate on my job.”

Even in England, where the problem persists at a very low level, Tottenham Hotspur, whose support base boasts of a major chunk of the Jewish community, have been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse across the country and in Europe and it was very surprising to note that Paolo Di Canio, a former Lazio player with Fascist inclinations, was allowed to coach first at Swindon and then at the Premier League with Sunderland.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre-Europe had sent a letter to UEFA president Michel Platini warning Europe’s governing body of the ugly state of the Hungarian football which has seen a rise in racial and anti-Semitic activities in football grounds across the former Soviet bloc country. The letter quotes the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels who wanted to draw UEFA’s attention to “the constantly recidivist behaviour of the Ferencvarosi FC of Hungary, especially in matches against MTK Budapest (ironically still perceived as associated with its pre-war Jewish support)”.

UEFA is still to decide on the mode of action against either FC Ferencvarosi or Hungary in general.