EURO 2012: Zero tolerance on racism

The Polish and Ukrainian governments have worked hard to try to dispel any fears of racism in the build up to the tournament.

But following the first racist incident on Thursday with the Dutch team officials were quick to try and calm the waters.

Poland’s Euro 2012 spokesman Mikolaj Piotrowski said: “This training session was watched by 24,000 Polish fans and they all cheered the Dutch players.

‘‘When the incident happened, and we still do not have a hundred per cent confirmation of what exactly happened, I saw some fans wearing t-shirts proclaiming a dislike of the Euro championship as such, the small group that caused the incident was completely drowned by the cheering and the applause of other fans. There is no tolerance in Poland for this kind of behaviour.’‘’

The incident came the day after Poland’s omnipresent Prime Minister Donald Tusk indicated there should be no problem during the event and that ‘The Poles are fully prepared for their role as hosts’.

Tusk was speaking during a dinner engagement at the home of the country’s first black parliamentarian John Godson and confidently added ‘‘Poland and Polish people will pass the hospitality test with flying colours.”

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