By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – Danny Jordaan, the man in charge of organising the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, is boycotting the European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine in protest at the racism reports that plagued the build-up to the tournament which began last night.
Jordaan, vice-president of the South African Football Association (SAFA), has attended every Euros since 2000 but is staying away after discussions, he says, with unnamed officials within the hierarchy of world football.
“If the host country acts in contrary to the spirit of the game, then one must take a principled decision,” said Jordaan.
Dutch players were subjected to monkey chants from the crowd at an open training session at Wisla Krakow’s stadium earlier in the week while a recent BBC television broadcast showed shocking pictures of anti-Semitism and Nazi salutes.
Jordaan said he had also heard there were similar monkey chants when England trained at the same Krakow venue though this has never been reported – at least not publicly.
“I heard in the media that when England trained there were racist chants,” he said.
“We must not support or celebrate such outdated philosophies.
“It is sad that there has not been any strong condemnation by the two host countries.”
Jordaan also revealed that a friendly between South Africa and Poland scheduled for Warsaw could be in jeopardy.
The two met in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup and as part of that agreement, there was to be a return leg in Poland.
“It will depend on what happens during the Euro finals,” said Jordaan.
“If these problems persist, we similarly cannot expose our players to such treatment.
“We will have to discuss it at the level of FIFA because Poland played us here in South Africa but if we are not able to meet that obligation based on the problems in that country, we will have to bring this to the attention of FIFA.”
Jordaan’s stance, while a strongly principled gesture given South Africa’s apartheid-tainted past, may nevertheless be construed in some quarters as too self-righteous.
Many will recall how he repeatedly urged fans to travel to South Africa two years ago despite the country’s appalling crime rate.
Jordaan would, or course, counter that discrimination based on the colour of one’s skin – something South Africa experienced all too starkly during those dark decades of white minority control – is a vastly different matter.
But just as the 2010 World Cup was largely untroubled by serious crime, so there will be those who argue that perhaps he, too, should not be tarnishing Polish and Ukrainian fans with the same brush.
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