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In 11 days' time, Europe's biggest festival of football, kicks off. | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
But just how safe will some fans be? Bloody hell. | :00:21. | :00:28. | |
I am concerned that they will be targeted by racists and fascists | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
and antisemites in Poland and in the Ukraine. The European | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
football's governing body says it has zero tolerance. | :00:37. | :00:45. | |
I think this is embarrassing and it embarrasses the whole country. | :00:45. | :00:51. | |
Panorama spends a month inside Poland and the Ukraine. We see the | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
fans who routinely abuse. What kind of things do they say? | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
Bad words. Like (BLEEP). The terraces where the fans give | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
fascist salutes. The ground where the supporters are beaten for the | :01:06. | :01:12. | |
colour of their skin. We were supporting the whole team. | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
The families of two black England players have already said they | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
won't go. Tonight a former captain condemns | :01:19. | :01:25. | |
UEFA's choice of host nations. Would you recommend families to | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
travel to Euro 2012? No chance. Stay at home. Watch it on TV. Don't | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
:01:41. | :01:51. | ||
even risk it. UEFA has a vision, a vision of a | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
united European family of football. This June, the family of football | :01:54. | :02:01. | |
has chosen to pay a visit to Eastern Europe. | :02:01. | :02:10. | |
Poland, Europe. But with 100 years of footballing | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
history, and they have some of the most passionate fans in the world. | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
They have the stadiums, the speck kal, but they have a big problem, a | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
reputation for violence and racism. So, does the family of football, | :02:25. | :02:33. | |
really know what it is letting itself in for? I've spent a month | :02:33. | :02:43. | |
:02:43. | :02:45. | ||
watching league matches across these two countries to find out. | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
My first stop.is Widzew, a city the size of Birmingham. It is not a | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
host city for Euro 2012, but I've been told to see the dark heart of | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
Polish football, I should come and watch the Widzew Derby. | :03:03. | :03:10. | |
LKS, versus Widzew. For this match, the visiting fans have been banned | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
from the LKS stadium. It is an hour before kick-off, the fans start | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
running battles with the police who just want to get them into the | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
stadium. It seems that a lot of them | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
definitely came here to fight, but there are no away fans, they are | :03:26. | :03:35. | |
banned from the match that turned on the police. | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
They have started to target us for a little while there, throwing | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
stones and fire crackers. It seems like anyone is a target if you are | :03:44. | :03:54. | |
:03:54. | :04:02. | ||
Every team in Poland has a hard- core of supporters. They call | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
themselves Ultras. They create noise and atmosphere at the games, | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
and they love to abuse the opposition. | :04:10. | :04:16. | |
At this match, I was shocked to hear the terraces chanting that the | :04:16. | :04:26. | |
:04:26. | :04:34. | ||
None of the Ultras would talk to me, but I did speak to a fan who did | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
not join in the chanting. Tell me about the antiSemitic chanting, | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
what is that about? They don't think that they insult Jewish | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
people, they just use it as a weapon to attack the opposite fans | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
and the opposite club. But they must think badly of Jews | :04:52. | :05:02. | |
:05:02. | :05:03. | ||
if they think this is an insult? Yeah, they know this is an insult. | :05:03. | :05:10. | |
In Widzew, two teams trade the word "Jew" as an insult, both on the | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
pitch and in a tat for tat graffiti wall. All this in a city, where | :05:15. | :05:21. | |
during the Second World War, the Nazis all but exterminated its | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
230,000 Jews, for some football fans, the word Jew is now used for | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
someone who deserves to be defeated and even killed. | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
I lived in Widzew. I was shocked on the main street where I saw that | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
Jews should be assigned to the gas. The idea that people walked past | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
this every day and let that happen, it was difficult for me. | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
Jonathan Ornstein has lived here for many years. He believes that | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
football hooligans are yet to catch up with wider Polish sod. -- | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
society. I think they are looking to | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
demonise the other team. The imagery that they are using is the | :06:03. | :06:11. | |
Jewish talk. I think it embarrasses the whole country. | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
My next step was Warsaw, the Polish capital and host city for Euro 2012. | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
This is where the opening ceremony is to take place. Where the fans | :06:22. | :06:29. | |
from all across Europe will be welcomed. | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
Warsaw's biggest team is Legia. They have one of the largest | :06:33. | :06:41. | |
followings in the Polish Premiership. | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
However, this particular branch of the family of football also has a | :06:45. | :06:51. | |
skeleton in the closet. If you're arriving here by train, | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
this is the greeting you'll get. Further down the platform, it does | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
not say "welcome to Warsaw" it says "welcome to hell" This graffiti | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
celebrates the White Legion. One of many violent groups organised | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
around football. Across the city they spray devotion to their team | :07:13. | :07:19. | |
and to their politics. What we have here is racist | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
graffiti. It also contains a very important | :07:24. | :07:30. | |
racist symbol, the so-called Celtic cross, the white power sign. This | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
symbol you can see often during the matches. | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
Jacek Purski's work is supported by UEFA to monitor and combat racism | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
among the fans. It is illegal to display such hate | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
symbols during the football matches. According to the Polish law, | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
putting this symbol at this wall is illegal. It promise oats fascism, | :07:53. | :08:03. | |
:08:03. | :08:05. | ||
it promise oats racism. In Widzew, I had seen racist | :08:05. | :08:13. | |
banners pledging white pride and heard fans citing terms and monkey | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
sounds on the pitch. Are you familiar with the monkey | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
sounds? Yeah, but you try to ignore it. Many people are doing it.. I | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
have problems with the players on the field. I try not to focus on it | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
and try to go on my way. What sort of things do they say to | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
you? Bad words like you are a (BLEEP) monkey or something like | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
that. Is there a system to go to? Someone | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
to report it to? The only person to report it is the referee, he does | :08:45. | :08:52. | |
not do anything. He will just say to keep going. Racist symbols and | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
antiSemitic chants have been a part of football for years. There are no | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
official figures but a report vealed that in 2010, there were 133 | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
serious hate rimes inside the stadiums. | :09:08. | :09:15. | |
-- hate crimes. Jacek Purski was a co-author who | :09:15. | :09:25. | |
:09:25. | :09:29. | ||
documented the offensive chants Today he's helping Euro 2012 | :09:29. | :09:36. | |
stewards learn to recognise racism. It can be an uphill struing until a | :09:36. | :09:44. | |
country where ethnic and religious minorities are all but invisible. | :09:44. | :09:54. | |
:09:54. | :09:56. | ||
-- it can be an uphill struggle. A lot of work has been done. The | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
situation is going in a good direction. Of course, we hope to | :10:01. | :10:08. | |
have a peaceful, non-racist Euro 2012, but still around the league | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
matches, from time to time, some incidents occur. | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
Incidents like one that took place here. This is Rzeszow, a small town | :10:19. | :10:28. | |
in Southern Poland. Two years ago, fans displayed a | :10:28. | :10:35. | |
huge banner declaring "death to hook noses" at the time it went | :10:35. | :10:40. | |
unpunish, though a year later, the Polish FA fined the club and a | :10:40. | :10:45. | |
senior official lost his job. Even so, we filmed a repeat performance | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
over a month ago. This time a banner declared the presence of the | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
antiJew front. Although nothing was done in the | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
match, the police later arrested the man holding the banner. The | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
club was fined �1,000. The supporters were give an two-match | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
ban. There's been a push as of late, | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
obviously before the Euro, they don't want Poland to be embarrassed. | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
We will see what happens with that, but I think there needs to be a | :11:16. | :11:26. | |
deeper, more pro-longed effort to eradicate not just anti Semitism, | :11:26. | :11:31. | |
but xenophobia. That is part of a larger issue here. | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
This is Krakow, a city that is football crazy. | :11:37. | :11:46. | |
This medieval city is to be home to the England squad during Euro 2012. | :11:46. | :11:56. | |
It's another town where hooligans have hi-jacked the word "Jew." | :11:56. | :12:02. | |
Tonight it is the Krakow Derby, Wisla vs Cracovia. | :12:02. | :12:10. | |
Also known as the Holy War, for the intense rivalry between the two | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
takes. -- teams. | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
Just a few seats away from mine, I spot two which is which is fans. | :12:23. | :12:31. | |
Both are wearing what look like anti Semitic T-shirts. Polish | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
Ultras were not willing to speak on camera. I secretly filmed a chat at | :12:37. | :12:47. | |
:12:47. | :13:05. | ||
halt. So, this is a Pole | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
Polish club? Your club? Yesment yes. I got it. | :13:09. | :13:15. | |
Soon, the war of words turned into a war of missiles. The opposing | :13:15. | :13:25. | |
:13:25. | :13:30. | ||
hooligans vented their anger on the Watching the match was Nick Lowles | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
from Hope Not Hate. An antiracist monitoring group. He had flown out | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
to see what the British fans could expect from Poland. | :13:42. | :13:48. | |
As we saw tonight, people had T- shirts on, they were not confronted | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
by stewards. My concern is what happens outside of the stadium. The | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
positive thing with English football is that increasing numbers | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
of Asian fans are travelling to support England. I'm concerned that | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
they will be targeted by racists and fascists and antisemites in | :14:06. | :14:11. | |
Poland and the Ukraine. It is not just Eastern Europe where | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
racism in football is an issue. Charges of racism has hit the | :14:16. | :14:23. | |
headlines across the country. Especially in the UK. | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
John Terry is to go to trial facing ariesism remark. Whatever the | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
outcome, one man who has faced racism at first-hand is another | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
former England captain, Sol Campbell. I showed him our footage, | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
to see how the countries come paired. | :14:40. | :14:46. | |
It is incredible how organised it All the chants of killing Jews it | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
is sickening to the core. I'm glad it is not like that in England. I | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
know it was at one stage, but in the 21 century, this is on another | :14:55. | :15:05. | |
Leaving Poland behind, I wondered if what I found in Ukraine could | :15:05. | :15:15. | |
:15:15. | :15:16. | ||
This is the capital, Kiev. It is where the Euro 2012 finals are | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
going to be played. Ukraine looks ready to host the euros, but were | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
their fans ready to welcome waves of visitors from all across Europe? | :15:26. | :15:36. | |
:15:36. | :15:46. | ||
I went to a Premier League match, UEFA say they have zero tolerance | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
of racism on the terraces. Yet these distant cousins in the family | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
of football seemed to have zero tolerance for anyone who was not | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
white. While police and stewards look on, a relative of one black | :16:02. | :16:12. | |
:16:12. | :16:19. | ||
That is just so sad. It is incredible. The thing about it is | :16:19. | :16:27. | |
that it is little kids, girls and boys. As recently as 2008, Sol | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
Campbell was racially abused at a Premiership match. Those fans were | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
arrested and prosecuted, but at this match in Ukraine police did | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
nothing. I cannot believe it, it just makes me feel sick, and I just | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
feel empty. I feel hurtful, because I know what those guys are going | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
through. I would hate to live in a place like that, just going in to | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
play a football game, you know, being subjected to all this abuse, | :16:56. | :17:06. | |
:17:06. | :17:08. | ||
and no-one is doing anything about Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city and | :17:08. | :17:18. | |
:17:18. | :17:21. | ||
This is the Metalist Stadium, soon to host Portuguese, Dutch, Danish | :17:21. | :17:31. | |
:17:31. | :17:34. | ||
What went on here I had only seen in films about the Second World War. | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
Massed ranks, all doing a Nazi salute. | :17:39. | :17:46. | |
During the first half, I saw men, women, girls and boys of all ages, | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
giving the Hitler salute and shouting Sieg Heil. I have spoken | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
to a few have the fans here, and they have confirmed that they are | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
saying Sieg Heil because Hitler hated Jews and blacks, and that is | :17:58. | :18:07. | |
With Euro 2012 just around the corner, what were the police | :18:07. | :18:15. | |
planning to do about this? How concerned are you about the | :18:15. | :18:21. | |
possibility of racist displays inside the Metalist Stadium? | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
TRANSLATION: Regarding Kharkiv and the whole of the Ukraine, up until | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
now, we have not had any such incidents. There have been on, and | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
I hope that during the Euro 2012 Championship we will not have any. | :18:35. | :18:42. | |
In fact, Ukrainian fans are very friendly. At the Metalist Stadium, | :18:42. | :18:48. | |
I saw approximately 2000 people do the Nazi salute to their team. | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
no, it is not a Nazi salute. It is... They were pointing in the | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
direction of the opponents, so it looked like they were pointing with | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
the right hand to the fans, kind of attracting attention to themselves. | :19:01. | :19:10. | |
So it is not Nazi. Sieg Heil! Perhaps something had been lost in | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
translation. I was sure of what I had seen, football fans doing Nazi | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
salutes. Across town, I met up with a football fanatic who is also part | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
of a far-right organisation. hide in his place in the market, | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
nobody can find us, any cops, any government guys. By Dean did not | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
have any time for UEFA's vision of a multicultural family of football. | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
-- Vadym. The Celtic cross, show. It is not founded today because we | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
have a match, just people relaxing. Does it annoy you if you have a | :19:46. | :19:56. | |
:19:56. | :20:02. | ||
black player playing for you? Do The whole bar was a shrine to far- | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
right extremism. They had Celtic crosses, swastikas and white power | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
symbols. There was also worked and help they -- there was also an | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
unhealthy obsession with Nazi Germany, but it was harder to pin | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
down exactly what Vadym believed in. Are you a Nazi? Do you support some | :20:24. | :20:34. | |
:20:34. | :20:39. | ||
Vadym is a recruiter for a group called Patriot of Ukraine. This is | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
a Patriot video, where they claim to be running out illegal | :20:42. | :20:52. | |
:20:52. | :21:06. | ||
Do you recruit from the stands? Do you find new members? Oh, yeah! | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
could see why football terraces could be fertile recruiting grounds | :21:09. | :21:15. | |
for the Patriots. Since the break- up of the Soviet Union, right-wing | :21:15. | :21:25. | |
politics and hooliganism have gone At this match, I spotted two fans | :21:25. | :21:27. | |
with Patriot logos on their T- shirts. It was not long before the | :21:27. | :21:37. | |
:21:37. | :21:52. | ||
It was a gesture I would see at I had another appointment with the | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
Patriots, this time to see how they took football hooligans and trained | :21:55. | :22:05. | |
:22:05. | :22:23. | ||
We are meeting a trainer in the use You keep it secret? | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
I had seen videos of Patriot events where they had rallied hundreds of | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
supporters, but at this training session there were just a handful | :22:31. | :22:41. | |
There are no reliable figures for Patriot membership, but they do | :22:41. | :22:50. | |
have a presence in all the Euro What makes them dangerous is not | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
only their extreme right-wing views, but they're clearly ready for | :22:52. | :23:02. | |
British government advice for Euro 2012 is for black or Asian fans to | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
take extra care in Ukraine because of the possibility of racist | :23:06. | :23:15. | |
Officially, Patriots say they do not condone attacks on foreigners, | :23:15. | :23:23. | |
but when I spoke to one recruit, that did not sound so clear cut. | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
TRANSLATION: We are learning to shoot, and we are learning tactical | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
combat, and military preparation, and we can take all this training | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
onto the streets. I can also add, because my face is hidden, that | :23:36. | :23:46. | |
these skills have already been used I have no way of knowing how much | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
of what they say is just bluster, but earlier this month in the host | :23:51. | :23:56. | |
city of Kharkiv, there were two stabbings, and both victims were | :23:56. | :24:01. | |
Nigerian students. Last month, UEFA responded to the | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
possibility of racist attacks. They announced funding for so-called | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
inclusivity zones, secure Areas outside of stadiums where | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
supporters of all backgrounds can feel safe. But have they done | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
enough to combat racism before the tournament begins? We asked for an | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
interview with Michel Platini, the president of UEFA, but we were told | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
that he was too busy to speak to us. However, in a statement, UEFA told | :24:26. | :24:36. | |
:24:36. | :25:02. | ||
Back at the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv, it was the final game of | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
the season. Of the pitch, it was said to be the most violent. This | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
is one of the stadiums that will be hosting matches in Euro 2012. | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
Tonight, it is hosting a match between two of the country's | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
biggest teams. Now, the local police have told me they have never | :25:21. | :25:28. | |
seen any evidence of racism on Vadym from the Patriots took me | :25:28. | :25:35. | |
into one of the most volatile parts of the stadium, the Ultras' stand. | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
Why are you in competition with that side of the stadium? Bloody | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
hell! It was not long before it lived up | :25:42. | :25:50. | |
Bloody hell! I am getting out of here! | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
Things went from bad to worse. With no segregation in the stadium, | :25:55. | :26:02. | |
scuffles are breaking out between rival fans all over. Suddenly, at | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
the Metalist hooligans spotted a new target, a small group of their | :26:05. | :26:15. | |
:26:15. | :26:22. | ||
Only these supporters were not Innocent people, innocent, look at | :26:22. | :26:27. | |
them, it is just gangland! And no- one is helping, no police is | :26:28. | :26:37. | |
:26:38. | :26:38. | ||
helping. Look at that. Look at That is absolutely disgusting. I | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
cannot believe that. No-one has come... At last, someone is helping | :26:43. | :26:52. | |
him. It is lawless! It is lawless! I want to cry for them. I want to | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
cry for them, because someone is living there, thinking, is someone | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
going to kill me today because of my colour? These Indian students | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
have been studying in Ukraine for the last few years. They sat in the | :27:06. | :27:11. | |
family section, thinking it would be safe. Ukrainian football does | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
find clubs when fans misbehave, but it set was unable to tell us if any | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
action had been taken over this incident. At Euro 2012, UEFA say | :27:20. | :27:30. | |
:27:30. | :27:36. | ||
the Ukrainians will have primary So it was very planned? They | :27:36. | :27:43. | |
trapped you? Gosh. Are the police going to help you to get home | :27:43. | :27:53. | |
:27:53. | :27:56. | ||
safely? They are not going to help Do you think UEFA were wrong, then, | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
to choose Poland and Ukraine? think they were wrong, because what | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
they should say is that, until we see a massive improvement, that you | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
have sorted that, you're never going to get his tournament. You do | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
not deserve these prestigious tournaments in your country. Would | :28:12. | :28:21. | |
you recommend families to travel to Euro 2012? No chance. Stay at home, | :28:21. | :28:26. | |
watch it on TV. Don't even risk it, because you could end up coming | :28:26. | :28:34. | |
back in a coffin. UEFA say that the legacy of Euro 2012 will be to help | :28:34. | :28:39. |