Daily Archives: May 29, 2012

His action would be unacceptable anywhere but the fact that Vadym lives in the Ukraine where the Jewish population was decimated by the Nazis during the Second World War – with between 100,000 and 150,000 shot in a single ravine outside the capital Kiev alone – makes his claim repugnant.

The truly worrying aspect of his attitude is that he is not alone. Vadym is a member of a far-Right group in Ukraine which recruits and trains football hooligans to attack foreigners and whose activities were revealed on a chilling TV documentary shown last night.
Yet despite the fact that racism is endemic in Ukraine, in just 10 days’ time the Eastern European country – along with neighbouring Poland – will host one of the most prestigious football championships of all, Euro 2012.
Such is the concern over the country’s lax attitude to racism that the families of two black England players have now decided to heed advice from the Foreign Offi ce and stay away. Neither Theo Walcott’s family nor the relatives of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 18, will be in Ukraine, where the England team will play all three of their group matches.
The brother of midfielder Walcott tweeted that he and his father would not be flying out to support the star because of “possible racist attacks”.
Official Foreign Office advice is that “Travellers of Asian or Afro- Caribbean descent and individuals belonging to religious minorities should take extra care”.
Former England defender Sol Campbell thinks all England supporters should cancel their flights. “Stay home, watch it on TV,” he says. “Don’t even risk it. You could end up coming back in a coffin.”
OVER the past week politicians, human-rights campaigners and football fans have been expressing concern about the tournament. Unofficial warnings suggest Ukraine can be an inadvisable destination for fans who are black, Asian or gay.

Kiev was forced to abandon its first Gay Pride march this month after it was ambushed by 500 Right-wing football hooligans, who beat up several would-be marchers.
The US State Department’s advice to travellers to Ukraine suggests Campbell may have a valid point: “The police and government’s slow response to hate crimes is a continuing concern. Although senior government officials have publicly deplored hate crimes, street-level law enforcement officials are either unwilling or unable to deter hate crimes effectively or protect racial minorities adequately.”
Scaremongering before a major tournament is nothing new. “Normally it involves the myth of organised hooliganism and has little to do with reality,” says one seasoned football correspondent.
“In this case, however, the worries about racism may prove correct.” According to Chris Rogers, who made the Panorama documentary for the BBC, fans and players are right to be wary. As well as footage of Ukrainian fans giving the Nazi salute his programme showed them taunting black players with monkey noises, singing anti-Semitic chants and even captured a ruthless attack on a group of Indian students at the Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, one of the Euro 2012 venues .
“Teams here have a following of hardcore ‘Ultras’ – a name given to fans who put on spectacular displays of support using home-made banners, flares and chanting,” says Rogers. “But I’ve been told some nationalist organisations are tapping into the Right-wing ideology of some Ultra-hooligans, recruiting them as members and using them to perpetrate violence against foreigners.”
Vadym is one. He belongs to The Patriot Of Ukraine, one of many nationalist movements in the country. The underground bar where he drinks and which functions as the unofficial clubhouse for his organisation, features a huge mural of the Celtic cross, often used as a symbol of white supremacy.
Chillingly he showed Rogers footage of himself at a Patriot training camp: “He says the training is preparation for a civil war to rid the country of immigrants and overthrow the Ukrainian government .”
The Patriots have 18 branches across Ukraine. All host cities of Euro 2012 have a branch.
Ivanna Pavlovets, who was born in the UK, recently visited her late father’s home. Now in her 40s and working as a journalist in London she found parts of Ukraine beautiful but was also aware of endemic racist attitudes.
SHE says: “Racism is far more acceptable there. The Ukrainians don’t see it as anything too wrong. All the terms we would consider unacceptable they still use in common parlance. I think it’s a result of having been isolated from international social mores for all those years under communism. Even after 20 years they are still emerging. They are still being socialised, if I can put it that way.
“They still use racist terms against Jewish people, for example. The thing is, it’s not always unkindly meant, they just don’t see anything wrong in pointing out differences. Although it’s not always malicious, it quite often can be if they see those differences as threatening.”
The decision of UEFA – European football’s governing body – to give the tournament to Ukraine and Poland, rather than Italy, the other front-runner, was spectacularly ill-judged according to Sol Campbell .
“UEFA were wrong, what they should say is that if you want this tournament you sort your problems out. You do not deserve these prestigious tournaments.”
More than 80,000 police and stewards in Ukraine are now said to be receiving “anti-discrimination training” ahead of the finals which begin on June 8. It may be a question of too little too late.