Why a victory for Greece on Friday, is a victory for all Africa
When Peter Drury uttered those (sort of)infamous words during ITVs coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, little did he realise that not only had his attempt at immortalising himself in a soundbite via football commentary had been moderately successful, but he had also spawned an occasionally used meme type
thing. Because friends these beautiful words do not only signify the selfish efforts of the modern day commentator to create himself a catchphrase of sorts. They signify that a blow has been struck against evil, that prejudice is being beaten in the street like it stole a sack of potatoes in an African village, and that Racism, that ancient beast that the stories tell of, has been slain for another generation. Unless they equalise, then we must be brave and fight on.
So what does this have to do with Euro 2012 I imagine for the sake of this article I hear you ask. Well, this summer the competition has the honour of being hosted in eastern Europe, specifically in Poland and Ukraine. Now if youre American, and you dont really care about any other country apart from your own, let me give you a little insight into our dear friends in the shivery lands of PolKraine(Note: PolKraine is not a country). Out there in the barren lands of eastern Europe they have but one exportable commodity, and that is racism. They love the stuff, cant get enough of it, and if they had their way, youd be racist too.
Now I know I said exportable, but I lied, they dont have the means to export it, theyre really poor you see. So theyve waited in the shadows for decades, just waiting for someone silly enough to bestow upon them the opportunity they need. Then theyll show the world, theyll show everyone exactly why they fought Hitler tooth and nail in WWII, exactly why
whoa whoa wait a minute, I got that wrong, I think they were on Hitlers side, thats the only way this makes sense. Anyway, as shown in the BBCs recent panorama program(*link presumably here*), both countries have serious problems with racist abuse and even racially motivated assaults in the stands. The racist abuse is said to be so widespread that even families of black players competing in the tournament have refused to set foot in either country, in fear of being called bad names or getting a hammer to the face or something(yeah, I saw that video, oh gosh). Ukrainian and Polish officials(I guess?) have been quick to play the size of the problem down, some accusing the journalism of being sensational, some just straight up denying it in a Comical Ali like fashion.
I mean, they may be right, right? This could have been blown well out of proportion, maybe theyre really a cracking bunch of lads whove been grossly misunderstood. Yeah, no. On the eve of the tournament, a racism storm was a brewin in the camp of the Netherlands in Krakow, and this time it wasnt between their own squad members. As the Dutch team were partaking in an open training session, the black members of their squad, players such as Manchester Citys Nigel de Jong, were subjected to monkey chants by members of a 25000 crowd. The Dutch responded by moving their preparations away from the spectators in order to avoid the chants, something which wont be possible inside a full stadium I would have thought. "At least now we know what we can encounter," Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk dryly remarked "Very atmospheric."
Uefa took the option of complete denial, even going as far as suggesting a couple of alternate theories(got to cover all the bases). The first theory being that a very small part of the crowd was in fact protesting the omission of Krakow as a host city. And the other that the Wisla fans(whos stadium the Dutch were training in) simply did not like the fact that anyone but their own team would use their stadium and were simply booing the Dutch as a whole. Upon hearing this theory however, Dutch captain Mark van Bommel reacted with understandable anger "You need to open your ears," he said. "If you did hear it, and don't want to hear it, that is even worse.".
Theorise as many incidents as you like Uefa, one thing is for sure, them there eastern euros are properly racist. Lets just thank god it isnt in Russia, imagine they had a mojor tournament
oh wait. So come on Greece, serve up these pasty chaps a bit of what you served up in 2004, bore these confused individuals into submission and make the world a better place. Ok so that wont happen, but make em mad, at least.
Bye x x