If you’re Black, don’t go to Euro 2012 Football

Why would anyone go to a sporting event to get racially abused by opposition fans, much less risk the possibility of Neo Nazis wanting to do you serious harm because you’re either Jewish or Black? These are distinct possibilities when the European football world decamps in Poland and Ukraine for the 2012 European football championships.

We have been saying for months on this website that FIFA has paid scant regard to the safety and potential abuse of Black players and supporters. Just last week Sol Campbell was labelled alarmist when he said Black supporters shouldn’t go unless they want to come back in a “coffin”. But after seeing Panorama’s programme about the thousands of Neo Nazi’s in Poland and the Ukraine, many now believe Campbell was not far off the mark.

Over the last year, we have seen English football struggle with the rising levels of racial abuse both on and off the field, but what we see here is nothing compared to the organised extreme Nazi fervour.

In today’s Guardian, Piara Power, executive director of anti-racism group, Football Against Racism in European football (FARE) writes about the challenges.

Our message is simple: If you’re Black don’t go to the Euros.

Simon Woolley