Euro 2012 organisers on Tuesday hit back at claims that Poland and Ukraine were unsafe for travelling football fans, amid fears from competing nations, current and former players about far-right racism and violence. Both Poland and Ukraine said that the claims made in a BBC television documentary thta aired this week and in travel advice issued by foreign governments did not give the true picture of the joint hosts of European football’s premier tournament. Former England captain Sol Campbell, who is black, warned fans to “stay home, watch it on TV… don’t even risk it” after viewing footage of football fans in Poland and Ukraine making Nazi salutes and taunting black players with monkey chants. The programme also uncovered anti-Semitism and a serious assault on a group of Asian students.
In Poland, organisers PL.2012 said the warnings were “unjust” and had “nothing to do with reality”, adding that instances of xenophobia and racism in stadiums were “a problem specific to the whole of Europe and not only to Poland”. They went on to invite former Tottenham Hotspur defender Campbell to Poland to see for himself. “Get to know us as we really are,” they added. In neighbouring Ukraine, Euro 2012 organising committee chief Markiyan Lubyivskyi told reporters that Campbell was entitled to his own view and was sure it was not reflected widely in England.
“But we are hurt by it and fail to see what the point of these comments really is. I do not think it is dangerous for people of different ethnicity to come to Ukraine,” he added. Ukraine is already facing a potential boycott by top European Union leaders over the alleged mistreatment of the opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is in jail on what critics say are trumped-up corruption charges. Lubyivskyi said media reporting the tournament should take a more balanced approach. “I call on all media to declare a moratorium on negative information about the Euro. I would like to say that 80 to 90 percent of this information is false,” he added.