Xenophobia in Sport
Czech football fans.
Xenophobia in sport is fairly common in the country, which is actively used for its political purposes by right-wing radical groups. In February 2013 stickers were posted in Prague, calling the football team “Slavia Prague” a “Jewish team”.
In March 2013 the Prague court banned eight fans of the hockey club “Chomutov Pirates” from visiting matches in the Czech League during the year. They insulted black hockey player from the team of “White Tigers” (Bílí tygři) of Liberec Wayne Simmonds, who played in the Czech Republic in the lockout period in the NHL. “Pirates” paid a fine of $ 1,500 and apologized to the hockey player.
On June 14th 2013 a match between the football clubs SK “Roma” (Neratovice) and “Čečelic” was stopped because of the application of racial slurs against one of the players of SK “Roma”. The coach of “Čečelic” denied these claims.
On May 21, the Security Service of the Czech Republic reported the growing unity of the extremists and football fans during the anti-Roma demonstrations.
In early September, members of Junior Roma FC from Decina managed to win two games in regional championship without actually playing, after their rivals refused to play a “gypsy” team. These teams were ordered to pay a fine of 4000 korunas.
“Nobody can imagine just how aggressive and vulgar these people are,” secretary of Rybniste FC Jaroslava Fisherova told Mlada fronta Dnes newspaper. “We’d rather pay a fine that play with them.”
In March 2021, Czech soccer champion Slavia Prague reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League, the continent's second-tier tournament, after defeating Scottish club Glasgow Rangers. Towards the end of the match, Sierra Leone-born Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara was the target of racist insults from Czech defender Ondrej Kudela. UEFA suspended Kudela for 10 matches - the minimum sanction for "racist behavior. At the same time, Kamara himself was disqualified for three matches for physical retaliation in the transition tunnel from the stadium - and he has been subjected to racist insults online "daily" ever since.
