Monitoring Racism In Soccer Stands
BELGRADE, Serbia — At the appointed hour, the man picked up his phone, sat down on the couch in his hotel, and dialed the number.
“Yes, hello, I’m calling you on behalf of Fare,” he said, referring to a network based in London that fights discrimination in world soccer. “Just to inform you, I will be the matchday observer tonight in Belgrade. We have done some research. Of course, we all know it’s a high-risk match ….”
The match in question was a Europa League contest earlier this month between Partizan Belgrade of Serbia and Skenderbeu of Albania. The person on the other line was the UEFA delegate assigned to supervise proceedings at the stadium. And the risks? They included the potential for displays of racism, political extremism and homophobia.
Two weeks earlier, in October, the same teams had met in Albania, and UEFA, which governs soccer in Europe, later had cited a report documenting “racist behavior” and “illicit chants” by Skenderbeu fans when it fined the club $70,000.
Hours before the rematch in Serbia, the man from Fare prepared to head to Partizan Stadium. He would work that night as an anonymous observer, one of the dozens trained by Fare to notice everything from banners to chants that can merit punishment for violating UEFA’s disciplinary code.
Since 2013, Fare has monitored hundreds of games each year in Europe. Its work has become more influential in recent years, as calls to eliminate all forms of discrimination from soccer stadiums have grown louder. Next summer in Russia, Fare observers will for the first time be present at every match of the World Cup.
On November 2, Fare’s volunteer observers also were in the stands at Europa League games in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Russia. But the match in Serbia was the one Fare officials viewed most warily. Soccer in the Balkans is inextricably tied with national identity.
Ethnic tensions simmer between several of the countries — the legacy of an ethnic war in the region during the 1990s — and a disastrous Euro 2016 qualifying match two years ago at Partizan Stadium between the national teams of Serbia and Albania shows how they can boil over.
That match descended into chaos when a drone carrying a nationalist Albanian flag hovered over the field; when a Serbian player pulled it to the ground, the reaction sparked fighting between the teams and the fans.
In October, when Partizan and Skenderbeu played in Albania, a Fare observer recorded the home fans chanting, “Serbs must be killed, destroyed, slaughtered.” As a result of Fare’s documentation, UEFA ordered Skenderbeu to play its next Europa match behind closed doors.
At the recent match, minutes before kickoff, Partizan’s ultras unveiled a banner depicting Lazar Hrebeljanovic, a Serbian ruler who was killed in 1389 in the Battle of Kosovo while fighting an invading Ottoman army. As it fluttered, the fans sang an old Serbian war march. The observer determined that while the display was clearly meant to provoke the Albanians, it did not cross the threshold of discrimination.
“It’s provocative, but if it’s not amplified by a further message, then it’s not enough,” said Pavel Klymenko, the coordinator of Fare’s observer program. “We can report what we think things mean, but in strictly legal terms, we have to prove what the intention was, what the motive was, how the victims were affected.”
At the final whistle, the crowd sang and applauded. The Fare observer looked content. “Look at them,” he said. “This is perfect. This is what we want.”