By Mark Baber
October 28 – UEFA decided on Tuesday to initiate a full investigation of the incident in which black fans of Dynamo Kiev were attacked by ultras of their own team whilst the Director of the Olympic Stadium, where the incident took place, issued a statement saying his words had been taken out of context and there was no intention to segregate fans on the basis of race.
UEFA will be assessing charges of racist behaviour, crowd disturbances and stairways being blocked during the game between Dynamo Kiev and Chelsea. Footage of the incident was provided by the anti-discrimination body Fare showing black fans being attacked and then trying to flee.
Following the incident, Volodimir Spilchenko, the director of the stadium, aroused controversy when he appeared to agree with suggestions from journalists of the 2+2 Ukrainian media channel that segregation would be a good idea.
The management of the stadium issued a statement on Tuesday saying “NSK ‘Olympic’ will not allocate specific sectors for black fans!”
According to the statement: “On Friday, October 23, 2015, executive director of the State Enterprise ‘National Sports complex Olympic Vladimir Spilnichenko gave an interview to 2 + 2. Unfortunately, the journalists who did the interview, stripped of context and included only the first sentence regarding the possibility of creating a separate sector and completely ignored the next sentence, in which the executive director expressed his position.
“Vladimir categorically condemned the idea of creating a separate sector or any other segmentation separate groups of supporters. He also said that always opposed the construction of additional barriers for fans. But these words were not included on the air.”
The stadium’s statement asked that the media “pay more attention regarding the transmission of information by journalists and distribute false information and not to speculate on the topic of racism.”
It remains to be seen if Ukraine Football Federation vice-president Ohor Kochetov will clarify his statement regarding the motives of the black fans attacked who he reportedly claimed were without tickets, holding flares and perhaps part of a planned provocation as they were sitting in a place where “people of that category” had never been.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1735089899labto1735089899ofdlr1735089899owedi1735089899sni@r1735089899ebab.1735089899kram1735089899