THE FOOTBALL Against Racism (Fare) network has praised Uefa’s response to the racial abuse and banners displayed by some Croatian supporters during Euro 2008.
Croatia’s national soccer federation has been fined 20,000 Swiss francs (€12,468) due to the racist behaviour of some of the team’s fans during the game with Turkey, which Croatia lost on penalties. European soccer’s governing body, Uefa, imposed the fine after the fans were found guilty of “displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct”.
The Fare network last week highlighted its observations of racism during the finals saying that most supporters had enjoyed a positive experience but issues remained that were cause for concern. Kurt Wachter of Fare’s Austrian partner FairPlay-vidc said: “We have presented a list of incidents to Uefa that we feel warrant disciplinary action and have been able to supply evidence for many of them. “Although the wider solution lies in our ongoing work with fans, clubs and FAs such as HNS (Croatian FA), sanctions such as this from Uefa send a clear message of what is and is not unacceptable.” However, the latest fine for Croatia is not the first time that Uefa has warned the Balkan country’s football authorities about the behaviour of some of its supporters. In 2006, Uefa informed Croatian soccer authorities that any further exhibitions of racist behaviour from their fans could result in the country being docked points from their qualification group or even being expelled from European competition.
The warning came after from an incident in a friendly game against Italy in Livorno in August 2006, when around 200 Croatian fans made a human swastika on the terraces. Some Croat fans also unfurled racist banners in a game against France during Euro 2004. Reacting to the latest incident at Euro 2008, Croatian FA president Vlatko Markovic was quoted as saying by the Jutarnji List daily that the fine was “not drastic”. He added: “They didn’t threaten us with suspension and we settled up the issue quickly. [Uefa] will not launch any further procedure… We will just get instructions on how to fight racism.” In the framework of the joint Uefa-Fare Unite against Racism programme at the Euro 2008 finals, Fare had monitors from 12 nationalities inside stadiums at each of the 31 games, in fan zones and in streets nearby to stadiums, tasked with reporting back on abuse and harassment arising from racism and other forms of discriminatory behaviour.
