In the film, former England Captain, Sol Campbell, was shown the footage and warned fans not to go to the tournament “or risk coming back in a coffin.”
Campbell then stated that Poland and Ukraine never should have been awarded the championship because of deep running racism and violence.
In the days and weeks that followed, the story spread like wildfire across the European media with ever more pieces on right-wing Polish, and especially Ukrainian, football fans. Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun and Sky Sports, in particular, provided extensive coverage of right wing Ukrainian groups apparently eager to pick fights with England fans.
How then now that the tournament is over have these fears shaped up? There have indeed been Nazi salutes, racist chanting directed at black players, but not coming from Polish or Ukrainian fans.
The Croatian Football Federation was fined €80,000 for racist chants and throwing a banana at Mario Balotelli, a black Italian player. Spain has also been fined for fans’ racist chants directed at Balotelli. Russia too has been fined for racist chanting, and leads the overall tally with €195,000 in fines for chanting, displaying nationalist flags, and setting off fireworks.
Germany was fined for displaying a Nazi banner stating “God is with us,” the inscription on the belt buckles all of all Wehrmacht soldiers during World War II, and for Nazi chants.
Though Poland has been fined for violent confrontations between its fans and Russia fans, the racist Polish and Ukrainian hordes that were supposed to attack anyone of darker complexion and, of course, England fans, failed to materialize.
And how has the Western media reacted to the non-event?
Some have turned a more critical eye on their own fans. In a piece written for The Independent, Shaun Walker focused on how mobs of intoxicated England fans have been undoing years of Soviet education on the sophistication and painful formality of the English.
In a less humorous piece by Florian Schubert for Publikative, Schubert focused on his own experiences with Germany fans and the prevalence of Nazi greetings, symbols, and chants used by Germans in cities they once occupied.
In general, however, the foreign media returned to covering the racism of its fans at home.
British police are investigating online racist attacks directed at Ashley Cole and Ashley Young via Twitter after their missed penalties resulted in England’s exit from the tournament. Police have so far tracked the account to London.
German media reported on the personal attacks via Twitter against German player of Turkish heritage, Mesut Ozil, with the commentator stating he or she thought only “real” Germans should play on the national team. Ozil’s family is seeking legal action and Twitter has since closed the account.
What remains unclear is why football elicits such racism even if only from a small minority of fans.
“What was correct was there have been issues in Poland and Ukraine,” said Paul Elliott in an interview in Warsaw last week. “But there are issues in the whole of Europe.”
Elliott, Chelsea’s first black captain and recently honored for his anti-racism work, emphasized that though the depiction of Poland and Ukraine in the Western media was inaccurate, the strong stand on high-profile incidents had emboldened the fight against racism in Eastern European football.
“For me, it was important for Poland and Ukraine to be given the Euros, for an opportunity to use the power of football to address and challenge these areas. And I think it’s been hugely successful.”
What Euro 2012 failed to provide was a clear cut East-West geographic divide between racists and non-racists. Whatever the reason, racism does seem to be an increasing part of football, but not just in Poland and Ukraine. The challenge as the sport moves forward is for the beautiful game to continue to bridge racial divides and not reinforce them.
Ian Bateson is a freelance American journalist.
