Victim of abuse says Sol Campbell is right – black fans should stay at home.In a crumbling corridor in a university in Ukraine, a Nigerian student nods in agreement as he listens to Sol Campbell's comments that black football fans should stay at home rather than join the crowds at Euro 2012 matches in the eastern European country.
He should know. The student, known as J, plays amateur football in Lviv, one of eight host cities for the tournament which starts next Friday. He said spectators sometimes come armed with bananas even when the game is for fun and played in front of a crowd of a few dozen. "It has happened to me – the monkey chants, racist comments and the fruit. I try to ignore it or turn it into a joke by eating the fruit."
Black and Asian students in the city told the Guardian that racism here is rarely challenged and racist violence lies just below the surface. There are random beatings, pepper spray muggings and a liberal dose of insults – as well as an unsympathetic response from the police.
The students leave their campus for home before dark, seldom go into the city centre unless in a group and stay away from gangs of men.
No-one supports them from Ukraine's authorities, J said. "It is difficult to stop racism here because the police are corrupt, the authorities don't want to know. We try to be invisible."
The biggest sporting event in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall appears to be in crisis over reports of racism within the host countries of Ukraine and Poland.
In Lviv, allegations that the authorities have allowed racism to fester have prompted incredulity and soul-searching among councillors and government officials.
Few in the city believe that the tournament will experience high profile racist incidents – each match will be heavily policed and monitored while many hardcore hooligans show little interest away from club football.
The authorities admit, though, that they have previously given little thought to the concept of racism until prompted to do so by intense media scrutiny.
A BBC Panorama programme on Monday broadcast brutal footage of "fans" on the terraces of Ukrainian and Polish club teams involved in criminal, racist acts. Hooligans were filmed attacking non-white fans as police stood by; others unfurled giant anti-Semitic banners; some fans including those of the local team Karpaty Lviv whooped monkey noises at black players while others appeared to give Nazi salutes during matches.
Before Campbell's comments, the families of two of England's black players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said they would probably not attend the 16-team tournament, fearing abuse or violence in Ukraine, where England will play their first three matches.
Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych on Friday was forced to release a statement defending the tournament and saying there would be no racism from the terraces.
J, a second year student, was one of five minority ethnic students who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, for fear of reprisals. Each, while quick to praise most Ukrainians as well meaning and polite, had personal stories of unreconstructed racism that have had a long-lasting effect on their lives.
One football lover went to watch local team Karpaty Lviv play Seville in the Europa League in October 2010. He was forced to run from the ground after a black player scored and he was threatened by fellow Karpaty supporters.
Another had a cigarette flicked into his eye as he walked to McDonalds in the city centre. He fought back and was beaten to the ground by a gang of five men.
Last year, two men, an Indian and a Moroccan, were assaulted with pepper spray before being beaten up outside their accommodation.
J, his friends and a growing influx of non-white workers know they have a tough task to change attitudes in this beautifully preserved city, known as "little Paris'' because of its curved, cobbled streets and baroque architecture.
The city's ruling party, Svoboda, whose slogan is "one race, one nation, one fatherland", has been variously described as fascist, neo-Nazi and extreme. Members prefer to say they are nationalists and friends of Marine Le Pen's Front National.
Andriy Khomytskyy, 29, a Svoboda councillor in Lviv, said that there are no issues of race to confront within the city because there are so few foreigners.
"There is no problem here, not like other Ukrainian cities. In Kerch [in eastern Ukraine] they have a problem because of illegal Chinese and Koreans.
Khomytskyy, a one-time regular on the terraces of Kapaty Lviv, is now a lead member of the council's economic and foreign affairs committee.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he remains resistant to confronting racism either on the terraces or on the streets where students have been beaten. He said of the fans at Kapaty: "They are patriotic, not racist." Of the apparent Nazi salutes filmed by Panorama, he said: "It [the salute] is not from the Nazis, it is from the Roman empire."
A father of one who teaches at a college, Khomytskyy said he bears no ill will towards people for the colour of their skin. When told of how black students said they feared for their safety, he shrugged and said that racist incidents are difficult to prove: "It is nuanced. It is difficult to say if it is racism if a black man is attacked. Often, it is just banditism."
Khomytskyy said that the best way to limit racist incidents is to limit immigration and ensure that the resident culture prevails, adding that he has spoken at length about race "problems" with his associates in the Front National.
"They tell me that they cannot go to certain [Arab] areas in France because you would get beaten and they might take your white girl," he said.
The profile of Svoboda, which now has more than 50 councillors in Lviv, has risen as the Orange revolution and its peaceful protests failed amid recriminations and allegations of corruption. There is a groundswell of anti-semitism, which campaigners said could be seen on walls around the football ground before a pre-tournament clean up. Some commentators have claimed that the right here have successfully linked anti-semitism and anti-communism.
For the more thoughtful members of the city council's administration, the allegations of casual racism in the media and on the terraces are an embarrassment which they are now trying to confront. Citizens who have volunteered to help fans during the championship have been given race relations training.
Oleh Berezuk, who is head of the mayor's office, said that the city and the country were trying to develop strategies to educate local people and allay the fears of immigrants.
"Lack of knowledge presents a problem for us. One has to remember our history – the Nazis killed or deported most of the Jewish population in the 1940s and we were under Russia and the Soviet Union until 1991. These issues are relatively new for us," he said.
Some have swung towards the extreme right because of a belief that the left let them down during the Soviet era, he claimed. Ukraine has not had the benefit of experiencing what it is like to adapt to a generation of immigrants in the same way as Britain and France.
"The brutality of the Soviets was something that we were told about by our parents and grandparents. We still feel it, in the same way that people in the west still feel the lessons about race. We need some time and understanding as we learn," he said.
One experienced anti-fascist campaigner believes cities such as Lviv are taking their first steps into the tricky area of race relations and are having to do so in public. Rafal Pankowski, of the Warsaw-based Never Again Association and co-ordinator of the anti-racist programme for Euro 2012, said it should be remembered that this is the first major football event to be held in eastern Europe in the modern era.
"These countries are beginning to talk about these issues . We have started a dialogue. We have already achieved something before the tournament has started," he said.
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| Euro 2012 Ukraine's festering football racism |
He should know. The student, known as J, plays amateur football in Lviv, one of eight host cities for the tournament which starts next Friday. He said spectators sometimes come armed with bananas even when the game is for fun and played in front of a crowd of a few dozen. "It has happened to me – the monkey chants, racist comments and the fruit. I try to ignore it or turn it into a joke by eating the fruit."
Black and Asian students in the city told the Guardian that racism here is rarely challenged and racist violence lies just below the surface. There are random beatings, pepper spray muggings and a liberal dose of insults – as well as an unsympathetic response from the police.
The students leave their campus for home before dark, seldom go into the city centre unless in a group and stay away from gangs of men.
No-one supports them from Ukraine's authorities, J said. "It is difficult to stop racism here because the police are corrupt, the authorities don't want to know. We try to be invisible."
The biggest sporting event in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall appears to be in crisis over reports of racism within the host countries of Ukraine and Poland.
In Lviv, allegations that the authorities have allowed racism to fester have prompted incredulity and soul-searching among councillors and government officials.
Few in the city believe that the tournament will experience high profile racist incidents – each match will be heavily policed and monitored while many hardcore hooligans show little interest away from club football.
The authorities admit, though, that they have previously given little thought to the concept of racism until prompted to do so by intense media scrutiny.
A BBC Panorama programme on Monday broadcast brutal footage of "fans" on the terraces of Ukrainian and Polish club teams involved in criminal, racist acts. Hooligans were filmed attacking non-white fans as police stood by; others unfurled giant anti-Semitic banners; some fans including those of the local team Karpaty Lviv whooped monkey noises at black players while others appeared to give Nazi salutes during matches.
Before Campbell's comments, the families of two of England's black players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said they would probably not attend the 16-team tournament, fearing abuse or violence in Ukraine, where England will play their first three matches.
Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych on Friday was forced to release a statement defending the tournament and saying there would be no racism from the terraces.
J, a second year student, was one of five minority ethnic students who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, for fear of reprisals. Each, while quick to praise most Ukrainians as well meaning and polite, had personal stories of unreconstructed racism that have had a long-lasting effect on their lives.
One football lover went to watch local team Karpaty Lviv play Seville in the Europa League in October 2010. He was forced to run from the ground after a black player scored and he was threatened by fellow Karpaty supporters.
Another had a cigarette flicked into his eye as he walked to McDonalds in the city centre. He fought back and was beaten to the ground by a gang of five men.
Last year, two men, an Indian and a Moroccan, were assaulted with pepper spray before being beaten up outside their accommodation.
J, his friends and a growing influx of non-white workers know they have a tough task to change attitudes in this beautifully preserved city, known as "little Paris'' because of its curved, cobbled streets and baroque architecture.
The city's ruling party, Svoboda, whose slogan is "one race, one nation, one fatherland", has been variously described as fascist, neo-Nazi and extreme. Members prefer to say they are nationalists and friends of Marine Le Pen's Front National.
Andriy Khomytskyy, 29, a Svoboda councillor in Lviv, said that there are no issues of race to confront within the city because there are so few foreigners.
"There is no problem here, not like other Ukrainian cities. In Kerch [in eastern Ukraine] they have a problem because of illegal Chinese and Koreans.
Khomytskyy, a one-time regular on the terraces of Kapaty Lviv, is now a lead member of the council's economic and foreign affairs committee.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he remains resistant to confronting racism either on the terraces or on the streets where students have been beaten. He said of the fans at Kapaty: "They are patriotic, not racist." Of the apparent Nazi salutes filmed by Panorama, he said: "It [the salute] is not from the Nazis, it is from the Roman empire."
A father of one who teaches at a college, Khomytskyy said he bears no ill will towards people for the colour of their skin. When told of how black students said they feared for their safety, he shrugged and said that racist incidents are difficult to prove: "It is nuanced. It is difficult to say if it is racism if a black man is attacked. Often, it is just banditism."
Khomytskyy said that the best way to limit racist incidents is to limit immigration and ensure that the resident culture prevails, adding that he has spoken at length about race "problems" with his associates in the Front National.
"They tell me that they cannot go to certain [Arab] areas in France because you would get beaten and they might take your white girl," he said.
The profile of Svoboda, which now has more than 50 councillors in Lviv, has risen as the Orange revolution and its peaceful protests failed amid recriminations and allegations of corruption. There is a groundswell of anti-semitism, which campaigners said could be seen on walls around the football ground before a pre-tournament clean up. Some commentators have claimed that the right here have successfully linked anti-semitism and anti-communism.
For the more thoughtful members of the city council's administration, the allegations of casual racism in the media and on the terraces are an embarrassment which they are now trying to confront. Citizens who have volunteered to help fans during the championship have been given race relations training.
Oleh Berezuk, who is head of the mayor's office, said that the city and the country were trying to develop strategies to educate local people and allay the fears of immigrants.
"Lack of knowledge presents a problem for us. One has to remember our history – the Nazis killed or deported most of the Jewish population in the 1940s and we were under Russia and the Soviet Union until 1991. These issues are relatively new for us," he said.
Some have swung towards the extreme right because of a belief that the left let them down during the Soviet era, he claimed. Ukraine has not had the benefit of experiencing what it is like to adapt to a generation of immigrants in the same way as Britain and France.
"The brutality of the Soviets was something that we were told about by our parents and grandparents. We still feel it, in the same way that people in the west still feel the lessons about race. We need some time and understanding as we learn," he said.
One experienced anti-fascist campaigner believes cities such as Lviv are taking their first steps into the tricky area of race relations and are having to do so in public. Rafal Pankowski, of the Warsaw-based Never Again Association and co-ordinator of the anti-racist programme for Euro 2012, said it should be remembered that this is the first major football event to be held in eastern Europe in the modern era.
"These countries are beginning to talk about these issues . We have started a dialogue. We have already achieved something before the tournament has started," he said.
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