Ukraine confident of trouble free Euro 2012

By David Gold

April 18 – Ukraine is confident that Euro 2012, being hosted jointly with Poland, will be free of racism and violence, in response to a report documenting a number of such crimes at football games in the two countries during the last 18 months.

The country’s deputy Prime Minister, Borys Kolesnikov, pointed to the Heysel disaster in 1985, when 39 people died before the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, to argue that hate crime was not a Ukrainian problem.

“Ukraine is 100 percent ready with regards to security,” he said.

“Look at the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus, any country can have reason to be cautious about fans.

“Fears can always exist.”

Of 200 incidents reported by the East European Monitoring Center in the two coutnries, the majority took place in Poland.

But Ukraine has its problems, epitomised by an incident in a Kiev derby last year, when an Arsenal Kiev supporter was stabbed three times whilst rival Dynamo fans chanted “Heil Hitler”.

Markiyan Lubkivskyi, Ukraine’s tournament director, said, “Racism is not a Ukrainian problem, but we know we have to work with police in terms of communication and language.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg, we have to show we are not a police state, but we have to be sure everyone can feel safe.

“It would be relatively easy to organise a tournament in Austria and Switzerland, but here we are faced with very different problems.”

UEFA President Michel Platini has pledged a serious clamp down on hooliganism, with the organisation’s director of operations for the tournament, Martin Kallen, admitting concerns.

Last month Poland’s Interior Ministry announced a range of measures aimed at tackling violence in stadiums to counter the growing trend for football hooliganism in the country to be linked to organised crime.

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