Police investigate racist abuse at Polish football match

Chants from Wroclaw supporters, who were playing at home, denounced the Widzew team as “Zydzew” (Jews), shouting: “Jews, Jews, Jews, all of Lodz are Jews."

The central city of Lodz was the site of an infamous Nazi death camp during WW II.

Many of the chants shocked some who attended the game., including: “Auschwitz is your home,” and “and you're going to the oven.”

But the offensive chants were not just limited to vulgar anti-Semitism. Some members of the Wroclaw fanbase also erupted into monkey noises whenever the ball was passed to Lodz's black players, Ugokuchwu Ukah and Princewell Okachi.

Incitement to hatred in the context of faith or ethnicity can warrant a prison sentence of up to two years in Poland.

Police have already detained one 20 year old Wroclaw supporter, and the matter will also be examined by the premier league Ekstraklasa Commission.

A Uefa-sponsored report by the East European Monitoring Centre revealed scores of similar hate crimes in Polish football, when the study was released this spring.

UEFA., the European football governing body, has expressed concern about racist chanting AT Polish matches ahead of the Euro 2012 championships, to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.

“Polish football is often quite multi-cultural, which is emblematic of broader demographic changes across Europe, but the situation in many stadiums still gives reasons for concern,” said Dr Rafal Pankowski, the coordinator of the East Europe Monitoring Centre set up by UEFA, after submitting evidence to the Polish parliament’s National and Ethnic Minorities Committee this August. (nh/pg)