BBC Panorama - Euro 2012 - Stadiums Of Hate (WTF?)
Published on May 28, 2012
BBC Panorama investigates Polish and Ukrainian racists and ultras, just days before the kick off to Euro 2012. "Euro 2012 - Stadiums Of Hate"
With just days to go before the kick-off of the Euro 2012 championships, Panorama reveals shocking new evidence of racist violence and anti-semitism at the heart of Polish and Ukrainian football and asks whether tournament organiser UEFA should have chosen both nations to host the prestigious event.
Reporter Chris Rogers witnesses a group of Asian fans being attacked on the terraces of a Ukrainian premier league match and hears anti-Semitic chanting at games in Poland. And with exclusive access to a far right group in Ukraine which recruits and trains football hooligans to attack foreigners, Panorama asks: how safe will travelling football teams and their supporters be at this summer's European festival of football?
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Just ask John Barnes about that.
I remember seeing a black guy on the North Bank terraces at Upton Park in the early 90s with a three foot exclusion zone around him. I was, I have to admit, too gutless to talk to him.
On a similar note, Germany are playing Israel in Leipzig on Thursday and a couple of my students raised the question of skinheads causing trouble there. Not impossible. Of course, the big difference is that if there is any hint of racist chanting the German police will come down like the proverbial ton of bricks.
A bit like our national flag, eh?
I am originally from Ukraine, Jewish, have been back several time and planning to go again soon for the Euro 2012.
While there is a grain of truth to the BBC report, it is mostly overblown, sensationalist, "let's be scared of Eastern Europe" kind of job. The "Ultras" shown in the report represent 0.00001% of the population and a small fringe of even the stadium-goers. The ones who start fights are degenerates who have nothing better to do and are more likely to attend their mediocre club team's games just for the "gang"/hooliganism aspect and are not even likely to show up to the actual Euro matches.
I have been to the World Cup in Germany in '06. Germany also has a neo-nazi, xenophobia problem, especially in former Eastern Germany, and football hooliganism, yet I barely saw any of those characters in my 3 weeks travelling there and they weren't the kind of fans who actually attended the WC games.
Someone suggested they should have never given the tournament to Ukraine/Poland & rather have it in Italy, England, or Germany. Really? Have you seen Lazio fans in Rome? Their whole team's support revolves around Mussolini and neo-fascism. Not to mention the non-ending bribery and corruption scandals their FA is having. And England? They make this documentary, yet what about riots that they had last year or that they're the birthplace of hooliganism? We're actually more afraid of drunk British fans at the Euro than anyone else. Also, Russia will host the WC in 2018 but they have worse football hooliganism and xenophobia. We'd pretty much have to limit the tournament hosting to Scandinavian countries if we follow this logic 
In any case, if BBC really wanted to affect UEFA, why not make this documentary 3-4 years ago when something could have been changed? This tournament is less than 2 weeks away and they want fans and UEFA to drop everything NOW? After Ukraine/Poland have passed all the other hurdles like building stadiums, hotels, renovating airports, trains, etc.. This is nothing more than a scare tactic or jealousy from England that they've been getting shafted from hosting Euros or WCs for a number of years because of their fan problems.
Look, I am not dismissing that there is a hate-crime/xenophobia problem that exists and is not being dealt with as needed by police, and I was very outspoken on other forums that it needs to be addressed and police culture there needs to change. However, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians (especially in Kiev & Lvov) are very educated, very welcoming of guests, very interested in meeting visitors from other countries and helping them. There is a bad apple though once in a while, especially those stupid kids, that they focussed on in the video. It would be like focussing on rednecks and KKK, or high urban crime rates in some cities and saying "Don't visit US! You'll get shot!". By that logic, World Cup should never have been hosted here in '94?
I'm sure Ukraine & Poland will do a great job. People there look forward to welcoming guests (maybe not drunk English hooligans so much) and showing the beauty and hospitality of both countries. It will be a great and safe tournament. If you sat home and watched Fox news all day you'd be afraid to step out of your home too, right?
