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Old July 30th, 2021 #21
Stewart Meadows
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Antisemitic mural appears after Dutch soccer star signs with ‘Jewish’ team Ajax


JULY 29, 2021 12:37 AM



(JTA) — After a Dutch soccer star left his team to sign with its rival Ajax, a team with many fans that affectionately call themselves “Jews,” he was drawn into an antisemitic mural in Rotterdam.

The mural, which appeared after 29-year-old soccer player Steven Berghuis signed with Ajax on Monday, contained the text “Jews always run away” and included a portrait of Berghuis with an enlarged nose, a kippah and a concentration camp prison shirt with a yellow Jewish star of the kind Nazis forced Jews to wear.

Ajax’s fanbase has had a high percentage of Jews for decades, and fans often fly Israeli flags at matches. Fans of opposing teams have sometimes chanted antisemitic and otherwise offensive slogans at Ajax players and supporters.
https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/anti...wish-team-ajax

Here's the "antisemitic" mural:



 
Old January 1st, 2022 #22
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Soccer fans filmed singing about killing Jews in Belgium


BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ DECEMBER 30, 2021 9:32 AM



(JTA) — Dozens of soccer fans in Antwerp, Belgium, were filmed giving Nazi salutes while chanting about Hamas and gassing and burning Jews.

Police are investigating the videos, which appeared on social media earlier this week. The incident appeared to have taken place at or outside Café Stadion, a restaurant near a soccer stadium.

The men chanted: “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews ’cause Jews burn the best,” as well as “Hamas, Jews to the gas” while making the Nazi salutes. They appear to be fans of the Beerschot soccer team of Antwerp, the Gazet van Antwerpen reported.

Such soccer chants occur regularly in Europe, and in the Netherlands and Belgium especially, ahead of matches between teams that fans of rival soccer clubs label as “Jewish.”
https://www.jta.org/2021/12/30/globa...ews-in-belgium
 
Old January 1st, 2022 #23
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Here in America White's idolize the non White's in any sport.Its a damned disgrace.
 
Old April 26th, 2023 #24
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Arsenal soccer club launches Jewish fan group to combat antisemitism


BY JACOB GURVIS APRIL 26, 2023 1:31 PM



(JTA) — The English Premier League club Arsenal has launched a new fan affiliate group called the “Jewish Gooners,” as part of its plan to address recent incidents of antisemitism.

The club also announced that it had banned 31 fans for three years each over “abusive and discriminatory behaviour since the start of the 2021/22 season.” Those 31 incidents include five acts of antisemitism, three of which occurred at the team’s Emirates Stadium in London, and two online.

In January, Arsenal launched an investigation into alleged antisemitic incidents that occurred at the stadium and at a local pub during the team’s match against Tottenham, a team known for its sizable Jewish fanbase.

The new affiliate group, the “Jewish Gooners,” which incoporates the nickname for Arsenal fans, will aim to both prevent future antisemitic incidents and to create a more “inclusive” environment for Jewish fans, according to the Jewish Chronicle of London. The Jewish security group Community Security Trust and Britain’s antisemitism czar Lord John Mann are both involved.
https://www.jta.org/2023/04/26/sport...t-antisemitism
 
Old June 19th, 2023 #25
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Tne banner in the above picture reads "Rome is fascist".
 
Old June 19th, 2023 #26
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Here's an older pissraeli newspaper article about "antisemitism" in Croatian football (or "soccer", as the Americans call it):

Quote:
Croatia's National Soccer Team Celebrates With a Nazi-supporting, Fascist Singer, Dividing the County


Marko Perkovic—nicknamed Thompson, after the submachine gun— begins his performances with the battle cry of the Ustase, and Nazi salutes can be seen in the audience

Shaul Adar
Jul 24, 2018

Imagine that the German national team had celebrated its World Cup win four years ago by inviting a Nazi singer to share the stage with the players. A singer who in the past had sung warmly about Auschwitz, the annihilation of Jews and the SS, whose song about beautiful Germany, including parts that were lost in World War II, became the team’s anthem.
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2...f-fbb6c41f0000


Another article about "racist" Croatian behavior from last year:

Quote:
Croatia football body fined by UEFA for racist fan incidents


UEFA ordered a section of the stadium to be closed when Croatia hosts Wales in March to open their 2024 European Championship qualifying group

November 05, 2022 11:35 am | Updated 06:17 pm IST - Nyon

Croatia's football federation was punished by UEFA for "racist and discriminatory behavior” by fans at the team’s last game before traveling to the World Cup.

UEFA did not specify the incidents at Croatia’s 3-1 win at Austria in the Nations League in September, which were reported to be insults directed by fans at the federation and far-right chants.

UEFA ordered a section of the stadium to be closed when Croatia hosts Wales in March to open their 2024 European Championship qualifying group.

The Croatian football body was fined 20,000 euros ($19,900) for the discrimination and 23,000 euros ($22,900) for other incidents in Vienna.
https://www.thehindu.com/sport/footb...le66099166.ece
Quote:
Croatia's National Soccer Team Celebrates With a Nazi-supporting, Fascist Singer, Dividing the County


Marko Perkovic Thompson embraces Croatian football star Luka Modric

Last edited by Stewart Meadows; June 20th, 2023 at 03:58 AM.
 
Old June 20th, 2023 #27
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Racism in soccer an 'epidemic' that mirrors disturbing trends in Europe: Advocates


High-profile incidents in 2019 brought the game into disrepute.

By Guy Davies
February 1, 2020, 11:03 AM



Bulgarian fans leave the stadium during the Euro 2020 group A qualifying soccer match between Bulgaria and England, at the Vasil Levski national stadium, in Sofia, Bulgaria, Oct. 14, 2019. Bulgaria has been punished for the Nazi salutes and racist chanting of its soccer fans with an order to play a European Championship qualifying game in an empty stadium, although the team avoided expulsion from the competition. B
Vadim Ghirda/AP, FILE


(...) Among the highest profile incidents was a match between England and Bulgaria in October, which saw Bulgaria supporters allegedly directing Nazi salutes and monkey chants at England's black players, forcing the game to stop twice. Bulgaria already was halfway through a partial stadium ban for previous racist incidents, which saw 5,000 fans blocked from entering a 46,000-seat stadium in October.

Kick It Out issued a statement saying it was "sickened" by the incident, and that serious action was needed in order to tackle such discrimination.

After the match, the president of the Bulgaria Football Union resigned "as a consequence" of the "tensions" surrounding the match, although the organization did not specifically mention racism in its statement.

UEFA fined the Bulgarian soccer association $83,000, and hit the team with a two-game stadium closure, meaning no fans were allowed in to watch those matches.

Iffy Onuora, the equalities coach for the Professional Footballers' Association, the trade union for soccer players in England and Wales, told ABC News that that match, given what he described as Bulgarian soccer's history of racism, was a "seminal moment in recent years."

"How did that happen when it was widely anticipated?" he said. "I think the profile of the game, an England international [match] involving the very best players in the country, I think that's when it really threw everything into sharper focus."

Perhaps the best example on the European continent of the failure of institutions to tackle the problem was in fact an anti-racism campaign in Italy, considered by many to be historically one of the worst offenders.

The "No-to-Racism" posters, officially sanctioned by Serie A, Italy's top league, featured images of monkeys' faces and were displayed at Serie A headquarters in Milan in a December presentation. Serie A eventually apologized after a public backlash, as just a month earlier the Italian striker Mario Balotelli was left visibly distraught on the field after being subjected to monkey chants in a match against Hellas Verona.
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/racism...ry?id=67850877
 
Old June 20th, 2023 #28
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Perhaps the best example on the European continent of the failure of institutions to tackle the problem was in fact an anti-racism campaign in Italy, considered by many to be historically one of the worst offenders.

The "No-to-Racism" posters, officially sanctioned by Serie A, Italy's top league, featured images of monkeys' faces and were displayed at Serie A headquarters in Milan in a December presentation. Serie A eventually apologized after a public backlash, as just a month earlier the Italian striker Mario Balotelli was left visibly distraught on the field after being subjected to monkey chants in a match against Hellas Verona.
Quote:
Italian Soccer’s Anti-Racism Campaign Features Paintings of Monkeys


Faced with a series of incidents in which black players were racially abused, Italian soccer officials unveiled initiatives to fight the problem. One was immediately labeled racist itself.



Luigi De Siervo, left, the chief executive of Italy’s top league, defended the work of the artist artist Simone Fugazzotto.Credit...via Reuters

By Rory Smith
Published Dec. 16, 2019
Updated Dec. 10, 2020

Four months into the Italian soccer season, the country’s top league is wrestling with a persistent problem: A series of players have again been victims of racist abuse in the country’s stadiums, groups of hard-core fans have defended their right to abuse anyone any way they choose, and certain clubs have denied that racism is even a problem.

Last month, one of the country’s highest-ranking soccer officials was accused of trying to conceal racist chanting rather than address it, and a powerful newspaper was criticized for its tone-deaf coverage of the issue.

So on Monday, Lega Serie A, the organization that oversees the country’s highest division, responded by launching a series of anti-racism initiatives. Almost immediately, even one of those — a series of images of monkeys in club colors — was criticized as racist.

“In a country in which the authorities fail to deal with racism week after week #SerieA have launched a campaign that looks like a sick joke,” the anti-discrimination network Football Against Racism in Europe said in comments posted on the organization’s Twitter account. “These creations are an outrage, they will be counterproductive and continue the dehumanization of people of African heritage.”

Lega Serie A had scheduled Monday’s news conference in Milan to reveal its plan to tackle Italian soccer’s endemic racism problem in three ways: by introducing facial recognition technology to enable clubs to identify and bar offenders; by appointing a so-called anti-racism team, consisting of 20 players from Serie A’s 20 clubs; and by creating a cultural program centered on bespoke works created by the artist Simone Fugazzotto.

The three Fugazzotto images, which will hang in the entrance to Serie A’s headquarters in Milan, depict three monkeys, each one decorated in different colors. Fugazzotto — who regularly uses monkeys and apes in his work — wrote on Instagram earlier this year that he had the idea for the imagery after a game at Milan’s famed San Siro stadium between Inter Milan and Napoli. During that game, fans had directed monkey chants at Napoli’s Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/s...er-racism.html





 
Old June 20th, 2023 #29
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Champions League final referee under UEFA scrutiny for alleged links to far-right leader in Poland


By GRAHAM DUNBAR
June 1, 2023 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — An anti-racism group called on soccer’s top referee Thursday to distance himself from a far-right politician in Poland, and UEFA said it wanted “urgent clarification” just nine days before the Champions League final.

“A further announcement will be made (Friday), after reviewing all the evidence,” UEFA said.

Szymon Marciniak was picked last week by UEFA to referee the biggest game in club soccer between Manchester City and Inter Milan on June 10. He also handled the Argentina-France World Cup final for FIFA this season.

The Never Again group in Warsaw said Marciniak “reportedly promoted and participated in a recent event organized by a Polish far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen.”

’We are shocked and appalled by Marciniak’s public association with Mentzen and his brand of toxic far-right politics,” Never Again co-founder Rafal Pankowski said in a statement. “It is incompatible with the basic values of fair play such as equality and respect.”

Mentzen is a leader of the populist Konfederacja (Confederation) party which has been accused of promoting antisemitic, sexist and homophobic views.

Marciniak and Mentzen were billed as key speakers at an event publicized as a business conference for entrepreneurs on Monday in Katowice, Poland. Mentzen promoted the referee’s involvement on his social media channels.

UEFA said in a statement that “the whole football community abhor the ‘values’ that are promoted by the group in question and takes these allegations very seriously.”
https://apnews.com/article/soccer-ch...5819d5d5517e27
 
Old June 20th, 2023 #30
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Bulgarian football fans express their support for young Kyle Howard Rittenhouse who was forced to shoot several antifa criminals, including a jewish pedophile, in self-defense:





Quote:
Rosenbaum raped five boys, sentencing records reveal


By Staff reports
Sep 3, 2020

Records reveal Joseph Rosenbaum, who was shot in the head and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha last week, molested five boys.

The Kenosha Reporter previously reported on Rosenbaum's criminal record.

Newly revealed records contain graphic descriptions of sexual abuse for which Rosenbaum was convicted.
https://kenoshareporter.com/stories/...records-reveal


Last edited by Stewart Meadows; June 20th, 2023 at 06:59 AM.
 
Old June 20th, 2023 #31
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Hungary rejects the pro-negro propaganda that's being spread by the jew-funded terrorist organization "Black Lives Matter":

Quote:
Hungarian football fans unfurl a banner protesting players taking the knee as a huge crowd gathers in Budapest to march towards the Puskas Arena ahead of their Euro 2020 showdown with France


By TOBY MILES FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:34 BST, 19 June 2021 | UPDATED: 23:22 BST, 19 June 2021

A giant crowd of Hungary fans marched to the Puskas Arena before their team faced France, with those at the front sending a clear message over taking the knee.

Flares and flags billowed across the wide road in Budapest as thousands descended on the national stadium for the group of death clash.

A banner reading 'brotherhood' was held up at the front of a chanting crowd, alongside one that called for players to stop their anti-racism protests pre-match.





https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...nce-clash.html
 
Old June 21st, 2023 #32
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'Anyone who thinks children can be blamed for any kind of political statement is truly an IDIOT': Hungarian government defend young fans who booed England team for taking the knee... after more than 30,000 attended win at Puskas Arena


By KISHAN VAGHELA FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:45 BST, 5 June 2022 | UPDATED: 16:06 BST, 5 June 2022

Hungary's government has launched an astonishing defence of the school children who booed England taking the knee, insisting they cannot be 'blamed for any kind of political statement'.

More than 30,000 young fans were in attendance to watch their side defeat Gareth Southgate's men 1-0 in their Nations League clash at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.

That was despite the fact the hosts were meant to be playing behind closed doors as punishment for racist and homophobic chants at Euro 2020.

But the country's FA took advantage of a loophole in UEFA regulations, which allowed 30,000 children in to watch the match for free accompanied by 3,000 adults.

And there were more unsavoury scenes from Hungary fans on Saturday evening after a sizeable number jeered as Harry Kane and his team-mates took the knee in an anti-racism gesture.

But the country's Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations, Zoltan Kovacs, labelled those blaming the children for booing the gesture as 'idiots'.



Hungary's government has defended the school children who booed England taking the knee



Supporters jeered as Harry Kane and his team-mates took the knee in an anti-racism gesture
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...king-knee.html
 
Old June 21st, 2023 #33
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Levski Sofia fined for fans’ Nazi banners




Levski Sofia has been fined 19,000 euros for its fans' display of Nazi banners. (AP/Ukrinform)

Associated Press
April 24, 2013, 10:37 AM

SOFIA, Bulgaria — The Bulgarian Football Union has fined Levski Sofia for club fans displaying Nazi symbols during a domestic league match last weekend.

The union said on Wednesday the club will be fined 19,000 euros ($24,700) because its fans displayed banners bearing swastikas during the match against Litex in Lovech on Saturday. Levski won 2-1.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/levs...-nazi-banners/
 
Old June 21st, 2023 #34
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Nazi flags, children with swastikas and pro-racism banners: Inside the club football culture in Bulgaria


By Ben Rumsby
12 October 2019 • 4:16pm
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...xploring-club/

 
Old June 22nd, 2023 #35
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FIFA charges Russia over racist chants against France's black players


FIFA has charged World Cup host Russia Tuesday with fan racism following chants aimed at black French players last month. The charges came less than two months before the World Cup tournament begins.

Issued on: 17/04/2018 - 11:38
Modified: 17/04/2018 - 13:21



Ben Stansall, AFP | Franck Fife, AFP | French midfielder Paul Pogba, one of players targeted by racist chants, during a France-Russia match in St. Petersburg March 27, 2018.

Text by: FRANCE 24

Monkey chants were aimed at black French players, including Paul Pogba, during France's 3-1 friendly win over Russia in St. Petersburg last month.

After collecting evidence of the abuse, FIFA says "disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the Russian Football Union (RFU) for this incident".

Russia was previously charged with racist behaviour by its fans at the last two European Championships. On both occasions, the RFU paid a fine.

It's the third racism case this season at St. Petersburg Stadium, which will host a World Cup semi-final match. Zenit St. Petersburg has twice faced UEFA charges for racism by its fans in Europa League games.
https://www.france24.com/en/20180417...an-fans-racism
 
Old June 23rd, 2023 #36
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‘Everybody hates us’: on Sofia’s streets, Roma face racism every day


After racism marred the football, Romany people tell of the abuse they suffer and of anti-Gypsy campaigns at the highest levels

Vivek Chaudhary in Sofia
Sun 20 Oct 2019 09.15 BST

A wry smile crept across Steffan Stefanov’s face as he scanned the internet, digesting news of England’s now notorious football match against Bulgaria. It wasn’t that he was belittling the racist abuse that was directed against the black English players, but rather the use of two words littering media reports about it.

“Bulgaria and racism,” he proclaimed. “The two go hand-in-hand. It’s our reality, we live it every day. I’m sorry for the England players who were targeted but, in truth, this was pretty minor for us.”

Twenty four hours after the England team and their fans departed Sofia, it felt disturbing to stroll around the Bulgarian capital in bright autumnal sunshine speaking with Stefanov and other members of the Roma community. There was unanimous agreement among them that the racial abuse on display in the stadium last Monday night was just a snapshot of the vilification they face every day, which blights their lives. Such is their fear that none of them wanted to be photographed.

A taxi driver by profession, Stefanov, 43, pinches his cheek to indicate his dark complexion as he explains what it is like navigating the streets of the city in which he was born in his bright yellow cab looking for customers.

“They don’t like this,” he said, pinching my cheek, this time to indicate our shared skin colour. “People stop me, look inside and then shout tsiganin [a pejorative term for Gypsy which is also a synonym for lazy or criminal] or blackie. Go away, we don’t want to get inside your stinking cab. I’ve been attacked, spat at and abused,” he said. “This behaviour against the Roma has become part of our society.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ti-gypsy-abuse

As I have said before on VNN, I've had many encounters with gypsies from all over Europe in my travels, and I can tell you that they're the most despicable "people" you can imagine.
 
Old June 23rd, 2023 #37
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Polish prosecutor: ‘Auschwitz’ football chants are not anti-Semitic


James Masters, CNN
Updated 9:49 AM EST, Thu January 16, 2014



CNN — “Move on, Jews! Your home is at Auschwitz! Send you to the gas (chamber)!”

These are comments that you might expect to hear in 1940s Europe, but in 2014?

Apparently yes, according to a Polish municipal prosecutor in Poznan, who decided this week that chants by football fans are not criminal offenses.

(...)
Anti-Semitism within Polish football is not a new phenomenon. In a country where some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust were committed, the home of Auschwitz, this latest episode will be difficult for many outside of Poland to comprehend.

Widzew has often been often targeted because of its links to the Jewish community which was exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Known as a “Jewish club” in the same way as English team Tottenham Hotspur and Dutch side Ajax are, Widzew and the city’s smaller club, LKS Lodz, are often taunted by rival team’s fans.

Poland was home to the largest Jewish community in Europe before the Holocaust, when 90% of the country’s 3.3 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. Today there are an estimated 25,000.

Moshe Kantor, the President of the European Jewish Congress, says the decision has consolidated a view that anti-Semitism is the “last acceptable prejudice in football.”

“Unfortunately, extreme anti-Semitic chants like those in Poznan are regularly heard in many European stadiums, including in England and Holland, and the reaction of the authorities is minimal,” Kantor said in a statement on the organization’s website.

The problems within Polish football are not confined to Poznan and Lodz – Krakow and Warsaw witness similar incidents whenever those cities’ clubs play each other.

Cracovia, a club founded by Jews in 1906, endures a hateful relationship with its Krakow city rival Wisla, which is driven by anti-Semitism.

Wisla’s hardcore supporters, known as the “Anti Jude Gang,” are infamous for their chanting and banners, even though the club has signed Jewish players in the past.
(...)
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/15/s...ism/index.html
 
Old June 23rd, 2023 #38
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Dutch soccer fans ridicule child Holocaust victims on Twitter


Feyenoord fans circulate image featuring toddlers wearing yellow stars in ‘new low’ for anti-Semitic rhetoric in sports

By JTA
19 October 2017, 2:59 am



Legia fans during a Europa League match between Ajax and Legia at the Amsterdam ArenA stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, February 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

AMSTERDAM – Soccer fans in the Netherlands used a picture of child victims of the Holocaust to taunt a rival team in what Dutch activists against racism called “a new low” for anti-Semitic rhetoric in sports.

The photo featuring two toddlers wearing a yellow star was widely circulated on Twitter under the hashtag #anti020week. The digits are Amsterdam’s area code, which in soccer jargon references the city’s main soccer club, Ajax. The picture, in which one child appears to be nearing tears, also featured the caption “When 020 had only one star.”

Shared by many supporters of the Feyenoord team of Rotterdam, the photo offers an extreme example of how fans of Ajax rivals mock the memory of the Holocaust. Ajax players and supporters are often called “Jews” in recognition of the large Jewish community that had existed in the Dutch capital before 80 percent of its members were murdered in the Holocaust by Germans and Dutch collaborators. Some Ajax fans self-identify as Jews.

Past incidents included songs about burning Jews and the SS, and the use of gas and Hamas, but using archival photos of individual victims is unusual.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dutch-...ms-on-twitter/
 
Old June 24th, 2023 #39
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Undercover observers track racism, discrimination at European soccer games


By JAMES ELLINGWORTH
June 5, 2023 GMT

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Blend in. Stay alert. Feign excitement if you must.

Among the thousands of fans in the stands at Europe’s biggest soccer games are a few people operating undercover. Trained volunteer observers listen for racist chants and watch for extremist symbols on banners.

“You have to be aware of the environment and fit in without standing out. You have to be discreet,” one observer, who has worked at games involving some of soccer’s best-known clubs and national teams, told The Associated Press.

“Obviously nothing gets published on social media. You have to be anonymous. You have to just sort of blend in. Don’t engage in conversations with anybody.”

The observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the job requires it, is part of a program run on behalf of European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, by the Fare Network, a prominent anti-discrimination group. Fare monitors about 120 games per season in Europe’s main three men’s club competitions, executive director Piara Powar told the AP, and more around the world in national team events like World Cup qualifying.

Evidence from the program, including photos taken surreptitiously from the stands, is used in disciplinary cases against clubs or national teams whose fans display racist behavior in European competitions like the Champions League.

It’s not a career, but a way to make soccer better for the future, the observer said.

Observers work on a volunteer basis, with expenses covered, and are expected to keep tabs on hardcore fan groups’ social media to track where incidents may occur.

Inside the stadium, an observer watches the stands for signs of racist, homophobic, sexist or other discriminatory chants or banners, while also keeping an eye on the action on the field, which shapes what happens among fans.
https://apnews.com/article/racism-ob...93c6cc53fea901
 
Old June 24th, 2023 #40
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Adebayo Akinfenwa on racist abuse suffered during Lithuanian ordeal


Wycombe striker Adebayo Akinfenwa tells Sky Sports about the abhorrent racist abuse he suffered while playing professional football in Lithuania as a teenager; Akinfenwa moved after being let go by Watford

Saturday 31 October 2020 13:50, UK



When Adebayo Akinfenwa was released by Watford in 2001, his footballing career stood at a crossroads.

With interest from clubs in England not forthcoming, a chance move to Lithuanian football offered the then-18-year-old an opportunity to continue his development. It was one he took with both hands.

What happened next completely blindsided the teenager straight out of multicultural London; overt, explicit racist abuse and hostility.

Here, in his words, Akinfenwa powerfully recalls his ordeal in Lithuania,
how he came out the other side and how it shaped him into the person he is today...

This situation in Lithuania came about when I was 17, 18. I'd just been released from Watford and my agent at the time was married to a Lithuanian woman.
(...)
There were no red flags until the first game. The first game we played was a pre-season game, and like most pre-season games we played the local team, so we didn't play in a stadium, we played on a pitch where all the fans were very close around.

We kicked off and I went out to the wing, so we could play diagonal. I chested the ball down, went down the line and straight away heard monkey chants. In my head I thought that couldn't be. Then, when I got the ball again, monkey chants. The second time I definitely knew it was monkey chants.

I went to chest the ball down again, and then the chants started. 'Ziga, ziga, ziga, shoot the ******* ******'.


I stopped and looked around and was like, 'what?'. And then what made it worse, of the 1000 people singing it, 500 were from the away team and 500 were my own team. The away fans started it, and then the home fans - my home fans - joined in.

I got through to half-time. My team captain played in Poland, so he spoke a bit of English, but everyone else, even the manager, only spoke Lithuanian, so I didn't have a clue what they were saying.

I was sitting there steaming and asked the captain what 'ziga, ziga' meant, and he nonchalantly said it was nothing, they just rhymed it with the n-word.
https://www.skysports.com/football/n...huanian-ordeal
 
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