Racism strikes at Euro '12: Netherlands football team subjected to "monkey chants"

This year’s Euro championship has already been making news before the kick-off and it’s racism again. The Dutch, being the team at the receiving end.

The Dutch team have been left outraged after unscrupulous spectators at their pre-tournament training session in Karkow pushed the limits and made monkey chants at some of the Dutch team’s black players. Skipper Mark van Bommel absolutely lost it after that and accused the UEFA of giving them a deaf ear and “brushing it under the carpet.”

About 500 Polish spectators are believed to have been involved in this incident.

van Bommel said, “We will take it up with UEFA and if it happens on the pitch during a match we will talk to the referee and ask to leave the field.”

UEFA officials and Dutch FA chiefs attempted to mellow down the situation but an infuriated van Bommel added:

“If people say they didn’t hear it, then they need to open their ears. If they did hear it and didn’t want to hear it, then that’s even worse.”

The ground is only three miles away from the English team’s training base and there is fear of another such incident.