Chilling stuff: Soccer’s Euro 2012 could be ruined by racism
They're all smiles now, but will Euro 2012 turn out to be a festival or a fiasco? (AP photo)
Think of the soccer’s quadrennial European Championships as the World Cup without Brazil and Argentina but also without the lesser lights. Euro 2012 includes 16 teams — the World Cup offers 32 — and at least 10 have a legitimate chance to make big noise. But the fear exists that Euro 2012, which commences today and runs through July 1, could make its biggest noise by becoming a cauldron of racism.
The event is being jointly hosted by Poland and the Ukraine. This month the BBC aired a Panorama documentary entitled “Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate” that, according to the Guardian, “showed Polish fans chanting anti-Semitic slogans and giving Nazi salutes.” UEFA, the governing body of European football, did the usual UEFA thing by first trying to downplay the report and then making assurances that racism would not be tolerated.
Sol Campbell was more forthcoming. He advised fans to stay away from Euro 2012. “Watch it on TV,” said Campbell, who is black and who was a defender on England’s national team. Then this: “You could end up coming back in a coffin.”
The issue of racism prompted the Italian striker Mario Balotelli, who is black, to offer this admonition: “If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to jail, because I will kill them.”
Teams began arriving in Poland and the Ukraine this week. At the Netherlands’ practice in Krakow on Thursday, what are being reported as “monkey chants” were directed at two black Dutch players. Mark Van Bommel, the Dutch captain, told the Guardian: “”It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz [the team had toured the site of the Nazi concentration camp on Wednesday] that you are confronted with this.”
After first suggesting that the crowd at the Dutch practice was merely protesting Krakow’s omission from the list of cities hosting Euro games, UEFA finally acknowledged “some isolated incidents of racist chanting.” (There’s some truth to the rumor that the “E” in UEFA stands for, “Evil? We see none.”)
Meanwhile, the England team is itself facing a race-based furor. Manager (that’s “coach” in European soccer) Roy Hodgson chose not to include longtime Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand in his squad as an emergency replacement for the injured Gary Cahill, choosing instead Liverpool backup Martin Kelly. Hodgson claimed this was for “footballing reasons.” As the Telegraph notes, nobody believed him.
Ferdinand is black. Were he to start for this England team, he’d be paired in central defense with John Terry, who is facing trial for alleged racial insults he hurled at Anton Ferdinand, Rio’s brother, during a Premier League game last season. (The same John Terry was removed as England’s captain — though he remained on the squad — before the 2010 World Cup for having had an affair with a teammate’s girlfriend.)
Ged Grebby, chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card, told Goal.com: “If John Terry was in an ordinary workplace with good trade union policies he would have initially been suspended on full pay and, now that it’s gone to court, suspended to the outcome of the case in July.”
This is truly shameful stuff. And to think: It was once fashionable to call soccer The Beautiful Game.
By Mark Bradley
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109 comments Add your comment
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
1:31 pm
Ignition
June 8th, 2012
1:21 pm
How did most Black people get here again ??
You don’t know that?
See the African tribes fought wars. Many of the Losers were taken to places to be sold to Slave traders. Many of the Women and Children of the losing tribes were assimilated into the winning tribe. The others were Sold and ship throughout the world.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
1:35 pm
BiggDawgK………the HAMPTONS come to mind. All those rich kennedy loving liberals spend the summers with 98% rich white folks.
ATLBadger
June 8th, 2012
1:36 pm
Eastern Europe is Europe’s version of the South…
Chilling stuff: Soccer’s Euro 2012 could be ruined by racism – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | The Art Of Soccer
June 8th, 2012
1:36 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
1:44 pm
ATLBadger are you from Wisconsin?
BiggDawgK
June 8th, 2012
1:47 pm
atlbadger
Spoken like the typical delusional racist yankee transplant. According to FBI stats around 70% of the top 25 cities with the most hate crimes i.e. race related murders and assaults are in the northeast. Please though don’t let facts get in the way of you pointing your finger. How’s that nice lily white gated community you live in carpet bagger?
Landon
June 8th, 2012
1:49 pm
MB, stick to covering u(sic)ga…..dumbest closing line I’ve ever read.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
1:51 pm
According to the 2010 Census, 86.2% of the population was White (83.3% non-Hispanic white), 6.3% was Black or African American, 1.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.3% Asian, 1.8% from two or more races. 5.9% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).[44]
The six largest ancestry groups in Wisconsin are: German (42.6%), Irish (10.9%), Polish (9.3%), Norwegian (8.5%), English (6.5%), and Italian (6.1%).[45] German is the most common ancestry in every county in the state, except Menominee, Trempealeau and Vernon.[46] Wisconsin has the highest percentage of residents of Polish ancestry of any state.[45] The various ethnic groups settled in different areas of the state. Although Germans settled throughout the state, the largest concentration was in Milwaukee. Norwegians settled in lumbering and farming areas in the north and west. Small colonies of Belgians, Swiss, Finns and other groups settled in their particular areas, with Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants settling primarily in urban areas.[47] African Americans came to Milwaukee, especially from 1940 on. Menominee County is the only county in the eastern United States with an American Indian majority.
86% of Wisconsin’s African-American population live in four cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit, Kenosha, with Milwaukee home to nearly three-fourths of the state’s black Americans. In the Great Lakes region, only Detroit and Cleveland have a higher percentage of African-American residents.
33% of Wisconsin’s Asian population is Hmong, with significant communities in Milwaukee, Wausau, Green Bay, Sheboygan, Appleton, Madison, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Oshkosh, and Manitowoc.[48]
Of the residents of Wisconsin, 71.7% were born in Wisconsin, 23.0% were born in a different US state, 0.7% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s), and 4.6% were foreign born.[49]
Sounds like Wisconsin IS Eastern Europe in the US.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
1:54 pm
According to the 2010 Census, 86.2% of the population was White (83.3% non-Hispanic white), 6.3% was Black or African American, 1.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.3% Asian, 1.8% from two or more races. 5.9% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).[44]
The six largest ancestry groups in Wisconsin are: German (42.6%), Irish (10.9%), Polish (9.3%), Norwegian (8.5%), English (6.5%), and Italian (6.1%).[45] German is the most common ancestry in every county in the state, except Menominee, Trempealeau and Vernon.
86% of Wisconsin’s African-American population live in four cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit, Kenosha, with Milwaukee home to nearly three-fourths of the state’s black Americans.
Sounds like Wisconsin IS Eastern Europe in the US.
Guy Bailey
June 8th, 2012
2:00 pm
Yeah – Balotelli could start a fight in a cemetery but here’s the thing – I am English and live in Atlanta – support MIddlesbrough in the English Championship as well as the Falcons, Hawks and Braves but I have never, NEVER heard the N word branded so loosely and with impunity on a daily basis as I have since I moved here.
UEFA and FIFA should not hold the tournament in country’s with such backward ass attitudes but certain posters on here should not walk around in their glass house buck-ass naked either…
Elmer Fudd
June 8th, 2012
2:02 pm
Also, Joseph, if you weren’t so ignorant, you would know that the Confederate flag has nothing to do with racism.
You cant be serious ?
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
2:03 pm
Guy Bailey……….did you just hear white people using or black people too. If you listen to Rappers and Comics they use the n word all the time.
gmahn
June 8th, 2012
2:09 pm
Really Bellad? The confederate (little c intentional) flag not racist? I’m sure a lot of homes in America have the stars and bars hanging right next to pictures of MLK, Malcolm X, or JFK because it represents such a large cross section of the population and is so inclusive.
Najeh Davenpoop
June 8th, 2012
2:25 pm
I am racist against soccer as a sport.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
2:29 pm
gmahn…………And having a Malcolm X Tshirt or sicker on your car isn’t racists?
Harvey from Docs
June 8th, 2012
2:31 pm
Why do I feel like I just stepped into a kindergarten classroom?
JSH
June 8th, 2012
2:34 pm
Nafeh – Not thinking soccer is a sport is not racist, but it does make you an ignoramus!
gmahn
June 8th, 2012
2:38 pm
depends on how close you display to your non-racist stars and bars.
Bucky Badger
June 8th, 2012
2:40 pm
Fried Twinkie, sounds like you know a lot about Wisconsin…But very little about anything else.
Bucky Badger
June 8th, 2012
2:42 pm
Agree Harvey…Kindergarten for sure!
Deciduous Darleene Tompkins
June 8th, 2012
2:51 pm
I live in soufwef Atlanta and I have never seen a confederate flag in my life and hope to never see one. One time I went to the Cyclorama but they had removed most of the confederate stuff and replaced it with art from zimbabwe like at the airport. The best way to deal with racism is to buy art and put it up on the wall.
Hollywould
June 8th, 2012
2:52 pm
When does the real football start?
Belled
June 8th, 2012
2:58 pm
Yes, I’m serious. The Confederate flag (capital C intentional) is a battle flag and is NOT the same thing as the stars and bars. Get your facts straight. Once again, don’t open your mouth if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Do a little digging into the history of our nation and you might figure it out, until then, you will continue to sound ignorant. So, please, read this: http://12angrymen.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/the-true-meaning-of-the-confederate-flag/
It’s for your own good, since it’s educating you about your own country, which you seem to know very little about.
gmahn
June 8th, 2012
3:07 pm
I’ve heard that one b-4 Yawn. And now back to the match.
Joey
June 8th, 2012
3:13 pm
Soccer Euro?
Who gives a crap?
leg brains
June 8th, 2012
3:16 pm
Um, jerry, leg strength has little to do with intelligence.
And if you’re argument is that because “blacks” are more athletic there is some justification that there could be other common traits too, like a lack of intelligence. Well, I hate to burst your scientific research, but there is more genetic diversity within a so-call race than there is between races.
To put that in terms you’ll understand, take two black folks and compare them with a white person. Odds are that there are more genetic similarities between the black guy and the white guy than there are between the two black guys.
Yeah.
Things like domination in a particular sport is way more indicative of cultural biases than genetic disposition. Kenyans are great runners because their culture places a high value on that sport and success within that sport (and the money kids see successful runners get) breeds more runners.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
3:18 pm
Best/Funniest part is that the NEW Georgia Flag is more Racists than the OLD Georgia Flag that included the Stars and Bars.
Jimmy Crack
June 8th, 2012
3:19 pm
Soccer is not a sport, it is the WWF (Wonderful World of Flopping). Soccer is an incredibly tiring prancing exhibition by males with too much estrogen who have great “falling down without being touched and writhing in pain only to get up 10 seconds later and be perfectly fine” skills. And now I find out on top of that they are racists. Flopping racists.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
3:20 pm
leg brains….good call.
NBA mostly Black
NFL closer to even
MLB mostly White and Hispanic.
Michael Haltman
June 8th, 2012
3:25 pm
FYI this is an article appearing at The Political Commentator.
Not all fun and games as a racist cloud looms over Euro 2012! (Video)
With Euro 2012 kicking off the event has already been marred by the racist chants of Polish fans directed at the team from the Netherlands and an attack on english speaking fans in Lodz by 50 Polish fans.
While these types of displays should unfortunately not come as any great surprise, it is alarming particularly when coupled with the rise in popularity of neo-Nazi-type movements across Europe typified by the recent polling success of Golden Dawn in the Greece elections.
A video clip of the Golden Dawn representative slapping a woman across the face on a television talk show is included.
Read the story and watch the video at The Political Commentator here: http://bit.ly/MhMAbI
Mike
Michael Haltman
The Political Commentator
New York, New York
Twitter: @ThePoliticalCom
PMC
June 8th, 2012
3:26 pm
so 40,000 people attending a Nascar race = “the South”
The whole point is that we need to focus on people as individuals.
PMC
June 8th, 2012
3:29 pm
Jimmy Crack, flopping has become incessant in all sports where one can influence a referee in such a way, see the Eastern Conference Finals.
The issue in Soccer is that guys go down like their life is ending for a light tap of the ankle. They should hand out tampons to these guys.
Jimmy Crack
June 8th, 2012
3:38 pm
PMC, and the Western Conf Finals with Tony “I think I just lost my eye and a tooth” Parker
ronald
June 8th, 2012
3:38 pm
If Eric Holder were white, he’d be charged with Hate Crimes and in jail right now.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 8th, 2012
3:42 pm
PMC
June 8th, 2012
3:26 pm
so 40,000 people attending a Nascar race = “the South”
If ONLY 40,000 people were at a NASCAR race the sport would have been dead in the 60’s. LOL
jerry
June 8th, 2012
4:09 pm
leg brains
To put that in terms you’ll understand, take two black folks and compare them with a white person. Odds are that there are more genetic similarities between the black guy and the white guy than there are between the two black guys.
. Here is my comparison. Einstein, Jesse Jackson, and Louis Farrakhan.
Will
June 8th, 2012
4:12 pm
Europe sux… always has and always will.
Will
June 8th, 2012
4:17 pm
By the way, did anyone see Labron get beer poured on him last night? That was embarrassing to watch that we as Americans are acting like Euro-trash.
leg brains
June 8th, 2012
4:24 pm
jerry, good example, my guess is that there are just as many genetic differences between Jessie Jackson and Louis Farrakhan as there are between Albert Einstein and Jessie Jackson. Quite possibly more.
You see what gets people is that they think that skin color is a significant factor in telling what a person’s genetic make up is. In fact, that’s not a very reliable sign. I probably have more in common physically with someone that has my same blood type than someone that has the same amount of melanin in their skin as me.
twinkie, I’m glad you agree. Otherwise, we have to agree that Argentineans and Spaniards are genetically superior when it comes to soccer over North Americans. That’s absurd. It’s cultural. They value soccer. North Americans value football. Some groups more than others.
Will
June 8th, 2012
4:30 pm
My comparison: Einstein, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and jerry.
Three very successful individuals and one who lives paycheck to paycheck.
BiggDawgK
June 8th, 2012
4:42 pm
America has nothng on the rest of the world when it comes to sports related violence. Players have been attacked and killed for screwing up. Those wacky euro’s even went to war over a soccer game Personally I think they were just so bored over the lack of scoring or action or anything happening at all they decided a war might break up the monotony.
georgedawg
June 8th, 2012
4:44 pm
AJC stop the bleeding Its not that Bradley and schultz are so bad it’s just that they’re not that good and it’s old. we need fresh opinions. Starting this argument in a sports column is beyond pathetic. Throwing around insults at people one doesn.t know is weak and Bradley knew this would happen. I canceled my AJC subscription as a protest now I read on line but don’t look at the ads.
gibble
June 8th, 2012
4:51 pm
I often go to academic articles regarding ethincity and discuss sports. And like georgedawg, I don’t look at the ads. I often type with my eyes closed. That’ll show them.
Futbol
June 8th, 2012
4:57 pm
No sport gets more reaction from American sports fans than soccer. If someone posted a field hockey article no one would read it and no one would care. Same for curling. Handball. Water polo. No one would comment on an article about a sport they didn’t care about….
except soccer.
It’s interesting that a soccer article brings out the anti-soccer fan. People feel the need to post why hate soccer. I can’t imagine anyone posting something similar on an article about hockey. Folks that don’t like hockey wouldn’t go near it. But folks that don’t follow soccer feel the need to chime in and express to everyone why they hate soccer.
I do wonder why that is. Seriously.
Is it the European thing?
Funny that American football with its draft and revenue sharing has much more in common with communist economics than professional soccer. Professional soccer in European is a free market. No salary caps, no draft. Who ever has the most money wins. Sounds American to me.
Anyway, carry on.
waterstim
June 8th, 2012
5:05 pm
Soccer being ruined by racism? So is the NAACP.
Yankees are just plain STUPID.
Paul in NH
June 8th, 2012
5:16 pm
Mark,
You haven’t gotten over Sol Campbell’s goal against Argentina in the 1998 WC being disallowed? I was in France watching the game – imagine how I feel. That was quite a game – England having to play for the 2nd half and extra time down to 10 men because some idiot got himself sent off. The idiot was soon forgiven and is now selling burgers on US TV.
Skeezix
June 8th, 2012
5:23 pm
Mark: Since I don’t follow soccer I had no idea this kind of disgraceful behavior was going on. It appears that the hatred, ignorance and sentiments of Hitler’s Third Reich are still not dead. Sad commentary.
Paul in NH
June 8th, 2012
5:24 pm
The generalized comments on this blog about “Europe” crack me up. You wouldn’t make generalizations about the US because of what happens in Mexico or generalizations about Guatemala because of what happens in Canada.
There are huge difference between individual countries. The Netherlands and Ukraine(to give one example) are about as similar to each other as Canada is to Nicaragua.
Paul in NH
June 8th, 2012
5:29 pm
Mark – forgot to say. Nice article – you know your soccer.
yo mama
June 8th, 2012
6:16 pm
your article is funny. the racism has nothing to do with the game of soccer you idiot. you should be fired for libel, saying basically soccer is a racist sport. having lived in atlanta, i know that racism in that city still exists. but dont blame the sport, blame the racists. they use opportunity to get attention, and this is a great event, just like the olympics, but would you ever say the olympics are racist? hell no.
so stop your bs writing Mark, because i dont remember you bringing up the racial tension in the new england area. whites and blacks dont get along. Did you forget Paul Pierce was attacked and stabbed numorous times in boston early in his career. Does that mean the NBA is a racist league that that happend.
These are all isolated incidents, and for you to say that the soccer governing body is insensitive is laughable, like the phony terrorism movement, preparation is needed for stuff like this. get a clue idiot. this article is perfect for wiping where the sun dont shine,