Updates on Poland 2012

[superbanane.livejournal.com]

I was looking for some news concerning Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine because I wanted to see what's going on there and I must say, I'm kinda worried now. The situation seems quite difficult to handle for the government, just have a look at what the papers say :

Daily Mail:

The Polish prime minister says his country may not be able to co-host the 2012 European Championship unless authorities and football clubs ensure the safety of supporters in stadiums.
Donald Tusk met football authorities and club owners on Wednesday to pressure them into using strong measures to exclude hooligans from stadiums.
Following the meeting, Tusk says stadium security needs to be a priority following the unrest last week in the Polish Cup.
Tusk convened the meeting following Legia Warsaw's win over Lech Poznan that caused at least £8,000 (40,000 zlotys) in damage to the Bydgoszcz stadium. Police have arrested 26 hooligans so far over the incident.
Poland is co-hosting Euro 2012 with Ukraine.

this is so serious hooliganism, srsly i even read the security had to use water canon against the crowd o_o

Bangkok Post:

Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned hooliganism posed a threat to Euro 2012 after crisis talks with the nation's clubs.
"If we can't settle this within months, the European Championships will be endangered" said Tusk, himself an ardent fan and Sunday league player.
After meeting with the 16 clubs in Poland's top-flight Ekstraklasa, Tusk said he had raised the spectre of widening empty-stadium penalties imposed on Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw, whose fans marred last week's cup final.
He pledged to take "resolute action" to stem the problem.
"We understand how annoying a state reaction can be for some people, but we're not going to give up on this one. Nobody has relieved us of the responsibility to provide people with a sense of security," he added.
Even before the latest outburst of fan violence upped the ante for Tusk, his centre-right government had vowed to get tough ahead of the showcase tournament, which Poland will host with neighbouring Ukraine.

Also I went on polandeuro2012.net and found this :

A new report from a Warsaw based anti-racism group documents the number of racist and discriminatory incidents in the host countries for the 2012 European Championships.

The report called ‘Hateful’ has been produced by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in cooperation with Football Against Prejudices (Ukraine), as part of the FARE network Eastern European Monitoring Centre. It covers an 18 month period from September 2009 to March 2011, detailing 195 individual incidents involving football in Poland and Ukraine.
The authors describe the numbers of incidents reported as ‘giving cause for concern’ and highlight denial of the problem as a key issue in the region.

‘It is amazing to note that even in the face of such overwhelming evidence, activists are still too often encountering a refusal to accept even the most obvious problems,’ says the report.
‘NEVER AGAIN’ spokesman Rafal Pankowski who is head of the FARE project in Eastern Europe, commented,
‘These figures are only the very tip of the iceberg but they demonstrate the scale of the problems of racism and intolerance we face in Eastern Europe. We found that hatred of Jews remains a point of principle for many fan groups in Poland, even though the Jewish is a tiny minority of the population.
‘In Ukraine we urge extreme vigilance by the authorities towards the presence of far-right groups, who we believe will be active and visible during the Euros next year.
‘However putting the sense of gloom aside, we also have evidence that our work to challenge and educate over a long period of time is coming to fruition. There have been positive signs that governmental and some regional authorities have begun to understand what needs to be done and are involved in a process of training and awareness raising.
‘We are pleased to be working with the local organising committees in both countries through the UEFA social responsibility programme for 2012.’
Of the 195 incidents reported, 133 took place in Poland and 62 in Ukraine, with the majority (105) concerning reports of fascist and far-right symbols, 36 anti- Semitic, 20 anti- black.
The rest were a mix of islamophobic, homophobic, anti- Roma and anti- disabled incidents.

There is a link to download the report on the website if you're interested.

I wanted to know if there are some Poles on ontd_fb who could talk about what's going on with hooliganism, and if it is a real threat as regards Poland co-hosting Euro 2012 next summer. I didn't find more about what Donal Tusk said so I wondered if you guys could enlighten us on this crappy situation. Seriously I hope they find a way to solve this issue, it would totally suck if Poland had to give up on hosting Euro 2012 (even though I know it's unlikely but...oh well ! idk :/)

Comments

[uncja.livejournal.com]

ok, hitler motorways are loud, but at least they DO exist

(poznań and wrocław have good motorway connections, but I wouldn't recommend coming to warsaw by car :P)

[karneol-vision.livejournal.com]

That's true, it's always been tough to visit my grandmother in Warsaw... argh.