Racism and Soccer Are in Play at a Big Event in East Europe

The most important sporting event in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall begins June 8 with the European soccer championships hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

But a complicated racial issue has arisen as the families of two of England's black players have said they will probably not attend the 16-team tournament, fearing abuse or violence in Ukraine, where the team will play its first three matches. A BBC documentary depicting racism at soccer games there has further inflamed emotions.

At the same time, one of England's top players, defender John Terry, faces a criminal charge after the tournament of racially abusing a black opponent during a club match last October in the English Premier League. The charge led to Terry's being stripped of his captaincy of the English national team.

Although racism in soccer has been a continuing problem in England, Italy and Spain, it has by degree seemed to be more virulent at matches in Eastern Europe, with some fans making monkey chants and throwing bananas at black players, while others have given Nazi salutes and chanted, "Sieg heil."

In 2011, the Bulgarian soccer federation was fined after fans made monkey chants toward the English players Theo Walcott, Ashley Young and Ashley Cole during a European qualifying match in Sofia. Also last year, the Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos walked off the field when a banana was thrown toward him at a league match in Russia.

The British government and the chairman of the English soccer association have expressed concerns about the possibility of racial abuse of players and fans in both host nations, particularly Ukraine. Few families of the English players are planning to attend the tournament, called Euro 2012, a spokesman for the soccer association said.

Ashley Walcott, the brother of the English wing Theo Walcott, said recently on Twitter that the family was avoiding Euro 2012 "because of the fear of possible racist attacks/confrontation." He added, "Some things aren't worth risking."

A third of England's team is black. Mark Chamberlain, a former player and the father of the teenage forward Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, has said he will skip the group matches in Ukraine but may attend the tournament's later stages. The final will be played in Kiev on July 1.

"It's a major concern," Chamberlain said in a British television interview. "I think your safety is more important than a game of football. It's just prudent to keep myself away from it."

Not since the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo has Eastern Europe staged a sporting event the magnitude of Euro 2012. As co-host, Ukraine hopes to showcase itself 26 years after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and two decades after it gained independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Yet the soccer championships will be played amid a planned political boycott of Ukraine by some European leaders over the imprisonment of a former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, and accusations of an erosion of democracy. Widely publicized concerns have been expressed about racism, sex trafficking, overly aggressive police, the spending of more than $13 billion to host the event in a struggling economy and exorbitant hotel prices charged to visitors.

"When Ukraine got this, people were saying it would be a showcase, to show its democracy, that its economy was growing, that it was part of Europe," said Steven Pifer, a former United States ambassador to Ukraine who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Now that it has arrived, the price gouging, corruption, the perception that Ukraine is going back on democracy and the decision by some European leaders to stay away is going to put a rain cloud over their parade."

There has long been a strain of xenophobia in the Slavic cultures of the former Soviet Union. While anti-Semitism has waned, it has often been replaced by racism toward people from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa.

Club soccer at the top level in Europe, however, is increasingly inclusive, with players from different nations, races and ethnic groups joining to form the highly regarded teams at Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester United. National teams in England, France, the Netherlands and Germany also field multicultural squads.

Yet soccer competitions involving national teams tend to foster stereotypes and chauvinistic tensions, said Andrei Markovits, a professor of German studies at the University of Michigan who has written extensively about soccer and attended four European championships.

"I'm sure there will be all sorts of nasty catcalls against dark-skinned players on all sides," Markovits said of Euro 2012.

But he added: "I don't see this as only Eastern European, except by shade or degree. It's ubiquitous in Europe. Somehow the soccer stadium has remained the last bastion of unmitigated maleness. You can behave badly and be proud of it, the way you can't in virtually any other venue in Europe."

Max Tucker, a Ukraine expert for Amnesty International, said from Kiev that the police might pose a greater problem for visitors than hooligans. He accused the Ukrainian police of being widely corrupt and intolerant. "The attitude here is that people of color are not equal," he said.

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, has said it awarded the tournament to Poland and Ukraine to spread the sport's influence and to confront social issues. Referees will have zero tolerance for racism during Euro 2012, UEFA said, and referees will have the power to stop a match if incidents occur.

Emotions were stirred in Ukraine and Poland this week by a BBC documentary that showed fans in both countries giving the Nazi salute, making monkey chants and displaying anti-Semitic behavior. It also showed fans in Kharkiv, Ukraine, one of the host cities for Euro 2012, attacking a group of students from Asia.

Sol Campbell, a former England captain, urged fans to avoid the event "because you could end up coming back in a coffin."

Officials in Poland and Ukraine called the documentary and Campbell's remarks insulting and unfair, saying that a small number of soccer fans misbehaved in all European countries and assuring that visitors would be safe during Euro 2012.

Oleh Voloshyn, a spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, accused the BBC program of xenophobia, according to The Associated Press, saying that Nazi symbols can be seen at "any match in England, but does it mean that fans should not come to London for the Olympics?"

English soccer was roiled by two high-profile racial incidents during the recently concluded Premier League season. Terry, who plays for Chelsea, faces a trial in July for reportedly making a racial slur during an October match. He denies the charge. But Terry is apparently the first person to be prosecuted for remarks made on the field.

Luis Suarez, a Uruguayan forward who plays for Liverpool, was suspended for eight games for making abusive remarks toward Patrice Evra, a black French defender who plays for Manchester United.

At a parliamentary hearing in mid-May, the head of England's soccer players union said that black players feared "a torrent of abuse" if they complained about racism after the Terry and Suarez episodes.

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the players union, said, "There is an element of belief among my younger black players that it's still, 'Hmm, I can make a complaint, but ...'"

The difference with soccer racism in Eastern Europe is a matter of scale, said Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of the anti-discrimination organization called Kick It Out, which is based in London.

"In those countries, they tend to have the excuse that there is little familiarity with blacks and Asians, a fear of the unknown," Ouseley said. "That may be the case, but it's unacceptable. If people want to go" - to Euro 2012 - "they should have warnings about what they might expect."

© 2012, The New York Times News Service