Danger! Danger!
Standards at the BBC are diminishing fast.
A documentary outlining the dangers for football fans travelling to Euro 2012 was needed five years ago, not 11 days prior to kick off.
Back in 2006, Scotland fans in Kyiv were attacked by hundreds of Ukrainian thugs and many were left battered, bruised, and with broken limbs.
The following year UEFA awarded the European Championships to Poland and the Ukraine.
Highlighting the vile undercurrent of neo-Nazism, racism, and organised violence would have been very beneficial if done in 2007 (albeit still too late for Scotland fans).
To do it now seems like scaremongering and shoddy journalism.
Warning fans not to go unless they want to come back in a coffin was a powerful statement. However, having months ago paid for tickets, travel, and accommodation, it will have zero effect on travel plans.
Nobody doubts Eastern Europe is stuck in the dark ages when it comes to the treatment of blacks, Jews, and any other ethnic minority. Indeed the British government have issued a warning to blacks and Asians to use caution if intending to go.
To be honest, though, anybody is a target if you’re not Ukrainian or Polish.
Apparently the far right groups of thugs in the Ukraine use the Celtic cross as a symbol to signify their hatred of Jews and so for the duration of the tournament that symbol will be banned.
Good luck to the thousands of lads heading over from the Republic of Ireland, then. Keep your tops on, boys.
Being warned of the dangers in a host country is nothing new for the football fan.
We were told that rape, carjacking, and drive-by shootings would be the order of the day in South Africa two years ago.
No doubt for Brazil 2014 kidnapping will be at the top of the scare list.
What you tend to get, though, when you do visit foreign fields for major sporting events is the cleaned-up version of any host country. Governments know the world is watching so security is stepped up and embarrassing elements of society pushed into the shadows.
And let’s not be too quick to sneer at the pathetic attempts by the Ukrainian government and police to bury their heads in the sand and pretend there isn’t a problem.
When football came home in 1996 British hooligans were marginalised in an unprecedented security operation.
However the biggest threat didn’t get much of a mention until 11.17am on the morning of the England-Scotland match when the IRA detonated a bomb in the middle of Manchester – injuring over 200 people and causing nearly a billion pounds worth of damage.
I don’t recall any BBC documentary prior to Euro ’96 highlighting that hidden danger.
– The Fool Monty