Euro 2012: Monkey Chants Aimed At Holland Squad, Van Bommel Implores UEFA To ‘Open Their Ears’

By Chris Wright

Holland captain Mark van Bommel has implored UEFA to ‘open their ears’ after complaining that the Dutch squad were subjected to racist abuse and monkey chanting during an open training session in Krakow, Poland yesterday evening.

Unsurprisingly, UEFA have refused to acknowledge the abuse was of a racist nature – instead claiming that the unrest among the 20,000 present at the Stadion Miejski (where Holland were training) was due to a protest being staged at the by local fans who were angered by the fact that Krakow hadn’t been given any Euro 2012 games.

Van Bommel told a media conference:

“Open your ears. If you did hear it, and don’t want to hear it, that is even worse. It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz, that you are confronted with this.

“We will take it up with UEFA and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to take us off the field.”

Journalist Martin Lipton’s version of events seemed to back Van Bommel’s allegations, with the Daily Mirror’s chief football scribe later telling BBC Radio 5 Live:

“As [Holland] were doing a lap on the pitch, around 500 of the local fans started doing monkey chants at the black players.

“It became worse on the second lap, at which point Van Bommel took the players to the other side of the stadium. It’s the only story in the Dutch press today.”

You’ll be glad to know that we’re hearing UEFA have ‘no plans’ to launch an investigation into the abuse at Stadion Miejski (consistency is key when dealing with matters like this) and Holland are not going to be making a formal complaint – presumably as it’s just not worth their while, especially on the eve of a major tournament.

Posted in Euro 2012, FAIL

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12 Comments

  1. Christopher says:

    Horrible decision in the first place to allow a pair of backwards countries to even host this event… Shame on UEFA and FIFA… as long as Platini and and Blatter can line their pockets…

  2. Le Mulletmaster says:

    Even as a proud Dutchman I think I can say, on behalf of everyone, that the ignorance of Uefa is disgusting.

  3. plops says:

    If Platini/Blatter didn’t hear it, it didn’t happen, right? Is that how it works? Like a tree falling in a forest with no one around.

  4. Dan says:

    Its very problematic to call Poland and Ukraine problem countries. And it’s difficult to argue against a whole two countries being refused a tournament due to a certain bunch of arrogant racists (racism often a sign of poverty and inequality, so it is that that may need to be tackled). However, the ignorance and avoidance of racist issues by UEFA is ludicrous and does not inspire confidence for players or fans. The tournament is taking place, they need to step up, acknowledge the problems and tackle them.

  5. David Macbeth says:

    Well like Sep says- there is no such thing as racism.

    Well having done a bit of research as far as I’m aware there will be no black players in the opening game between Poland and Greece but the first black player in the tournament should be playing tonight for the Czechs- Theodor Solassie so it will be interesting (maybe the wrong word) to see what happens.

    I’m sure secretly UEFA are absolutely crapping themselves in case their tournament turns into a farce. Here’s hoping it doesn’t.

  6. joe says:

    I heard blatter and platini instigated the crowd

  7. Les says:

    @ Dan, the problem isn’t with labelling the whole countries racist because of a minority, we have similar minorities in Britain. The problem is that noone in those countries seems to care or do anything to combat racism as to them it doesnt exist when in the UK we tackled it head on. The fans are openly racist yet the police and their fa’s do nothing about it.
    As for UEFA and FIFA they are an absolute joke. I mean Russia is hardly gonna be any better now is it and they get to welcome teams from Africa and Asia too comprised solely of non white players. Oh goodee…….

  8. acolin87 says:

    Van Bommel should have known better than to move training to the other side of the pitch. If he simply would have taken the team up into the “racist” section and shaken hands with everyone there, the issue would have been resolved!

  9. Toz says:

    @Christopher.

    Are you taking the piss, or you just a fucking moron?

  10. degenerate Man United fan says:

    Aye but Luis Suarez blah blah blah

  11. pray4muamba says:

    one thing i’ll never get. aim a nasty comment directed at any uefa/fifa officials and they fine the shyte out of you. how ever if any player is racially abused its almost like we didnt hear it, it didn’t happen. shake hands

  12. vvv. says:

    There were chants (mostly directed against the tournament as such and a rival local team of the ones chanting), but it was not racist event created for a Dutch team, and in fact it was a small group of idiots who decided to act like idiots. Of course it should have been stopped immediately by the police and those people shoule have been kicked out of the stadium immediately. It’s a shame how they behaved.

    but to transfer the opinion about one group of hooligans at the stadium (that were the minority, the rest of the people were mostly kids and peaceful dudes) to two big european nations is just unfair.

    It’s as if like the whole world would base their opinion about Britain on the London riots from last year. It’s obvious they did not represent the whole nation! It’s not so difficult to understand that there are different people in the societies and a band of idiots does not represent the whole country.

    There is a theory that the media try to prove that Poland and Ukraine are the worst countries in the world full of racism and giving the Euro was the worst thing in the world. (I am not talking about Pies of course, it concerns some of the British media).

    Funny how noone remembers the Beijing Olympics and funny how everyone will watch the ones in Sochii.

    I am not defending anyone, I just think that the facts should be checked (also by UEFA, who should and least run some investigation) and no generalisations should be made. Because generalisations are what creates dangerous stereotypes.

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