Every big sports event gets its share of sensationalist and slanted stories. Yet the Euro 2012 football championship seems to have set a new low for media coverage. Tales of racism, violence and thievery traveled the world while fact-checking and objectivity were left at the door.
It begun before the tournament itself, with alleged racist chanting reported at a training of the Netherlands team open to the public. Team captain Mark van Bommel complained about chants after the game. Though other team members denied hearing anything, including the manager Bert van Marwijk, de Telegraaf reported that a handful of supporters were involved in racist chanting.
This version was challenged by the center-left daily de Volkskrant, whose journalists were also on site.
“Our reporters were there and they didn’t hear anything racist,” a Volkskrant spokesperson told Kyiv Post.
Nonetheless, the story snowballed through media reports, with the Guardian later reporting that hundreds of hooligans were involved.
Yet local reports also deny any racism, noting that there was much booing by Wisla Krakow fans of rival team Cracovia supporters located nearby, but no monkey chants. Some fans also held up a “F*ck Euro” banner, in protest that Krakow, a football stronghold in Poland, was not chosen to host any games – offensive yes, but not racist.
A police investigation also found no confirmation of racist chanting. According to police spokesperson Dariusz Nowak, 12 fans were identified as having shooting abusive expression at their rivals, but “no monkey chants, no gestures, nothing that would suggest racism.”
“The information spread by UEFA, about incidents that did not in fact take place, is very harmful to the image of the city,” said Krakow’s mayor Jacek Majchrowski. He added that the group of abusive fans was removed within less than 15 minutes, and reminded that UEFA is responsible for ensuring security at the stadiums.
Leugens.nl, a media monitoring portal, claimed the whole affair had been spun by the De Telegraaf, a paper known for its anti-immigrant slant and sensationalist coverage.
This is far from the tournament’s only case of sloppy or sensationalist news coverage by foreign outlets.
In one example, the Guardian ran a story titled “England and Sweden fans clash in Kiev ahead of Group D game,” but admitted in the article that no fighting actually took place. The story, however, hinted at the possibility of conflict, evidenced only by the presence of security personnel at a football event.
In a similar vein, the BBC publish a video report called “Ukraine’s $1,100 a night dorm room for Euro 2012,” portraying an exorbitantly priced spartan four-bed room.
“We managed to book the room for around $50,” the journalist admits in the video, but defends the title by saying that trying to book the room for match days would require an astronomical expense.
As the Kyiv Post reported, however, an English-language Google search and several phone calls showed that an entire apartment in the city center could be rented for just $170 a night on the same dates.
Yet the creme de la creme of irresponsible journalism came in the form of a Sky Sports report about hooligans in Donetsk.
“For six months we’ve tracking the Donetsk Company, a firm of hooligans who follow the team Shakhtar Donetsk,” the video starts to tense music better suited to a thriller than a documentary.
The Sky Sports reporters than go on to describe a 20 year old unemployed individual named Tolek, the alleged racist thug leader of the group. Further in the video, they describe how dangerous and violent the thugs are, and how hateful they are toward foreigners.
But looking at the ensuing footage already suggests something is amiss. Rather than dangerous, Tolek – who never stops smiling during the film – gives off the impression of a beer-addled, bumbling fool who wants to show how tough he is. This is later confirmed when the reporters follow the “Donetsk Company” to an underground fight two hours outside of Donetsk. There, the over-optimistic lads get a rapid beating. If anything, it seems, they are a danger to themselves.
Likewise, the claims of vitriolic racist sentiment that the Donetsk Company harbors appear dubious. Tolek himself came out after the story ran and said the crew had tricked him into making the Nazi gesture. They asked him if he knew what the salute meant and Tolek, whose poor English is evident from the footage, explained it by emulating them.
Even more serious, it now seems the whole story was fabricated. According to Shakhtar officials, the Sky Sports journalists came for several days claiming they wanted to do a report on the team. They interviewed players and management but did not use any of the footage.
Moreover, the claims that they spent six months investigating the area are ludicrous, the soccer team representatives say.
“They were here for around 4 or 5 days,” said Joe Palmer, the team’s chief operating officer.
He also pointed out the absurdity of the “fight sequence.”
They focused on three guys who drove out of the city for two hours to have a fight, and at the end of it, they are patting each other on the back and helping each other up, Palmer said. “At no point was this a threat to anyone.”
“They basically did a piece about nothing,” he summed it up.
Kyiv Post staff writer Jakub Parusinski can be reached at [email protected]
