Euro 2012 Begins with Racist Chants, Monkey Noises, Aimed at Black Dutch Players During Training

EURO 2012 BEGINS WITH RACIST CHANTS AIMED AIMED AT BLACK PLAYERS:  Euro 2012 has barely started and black soccer players are being subjected to racist chants. The Europeans are so much more civilized than Americans. SMH. Soccer is a way of life for many people around the world and it shows in the fact that more than 25,000 people came out to Stadion Miejski in Krakow, Poland, just to watch the Netherlands national team practice. A large group of those fans greeted the team’s black players with racist “monkey noises.” This is obscene and unruly behavior that shouldn’t be tolerated one iota.

Dutch captain Mark van Bommel was exasperated at the racist display,  saying ”You need to open your ears. If you did hear it, and don’t want to hear it, that is even worse.”

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.” Source: Guardian

Poland will tell you it has come a long way and is working to change the perception, with the election of its first black parliamentarian, John Godson.  That’s all well and good, but if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. There is a seedy undercurrent of racism in Poland and the Ukraine that will continue to rear its ugly head at Euro 2012, whether the UEFA cares to admit it or not. My oldest son would like to play professional soccer after he graduates from college, but I would have serious reservations about him ever playing on a European team.

Separately, the Daily Mail reports that a gang of about 50 masked “thugs” attacked foreign fans speaking English and Russian outside pub in Lodz. That incident was deemed a more traditional case of hooliganism. SMH. The UEFA said it has no plans to investigate the monkey chants incident.