ANTI-GYPSYISM IN FOOTBALL(Romania) Date Mittwoch, Mai 11 @ 08:27:43 Topic News on Romania ANTI-GYPSYISM IN FOOTBALL(Romania) rnBy Valeriu Nicolae rnOn 13th of April 2005 Steaua Bucharest played against Rapid Bucharest in one of the games with the highest audience in Romania. rnrnDuring the entire game Steaua\'s supporters proliferated anti-Gypsy chants and abuses against the host team of Rapid Bucharest. Instigation to violence and explicit hate speech against Roma came also from the speaker of the Stadium. One of the most racist Romanian songs called \"Gypsyies and UFOs\" was broadcasted through the Stadium speakers during the intermission. After the game Gabi Safta the presenter at the home games of Steaua Bucharest verbally abused the coach of Rapid, Razvan Lucescu which he also called a \"stinky Gypsy\" rnHow is that possible? rnrnGigi Becali the owner of Steaua Bucuresti declared publicly before the game that he would beat up the ex-owner of Rapid Bucuresti (team largely supported by Roma community in Bucharest) and one of the Romanian ministers nowadays, if he would dare to come to the game. Gigi Becali, one of the richest man in Romania does openly support the extreme right wing organization \"Noua Dreapta\". The organization has the same doctrine as the \"Iron Guard\", the extreme Nazi movement in Romania during the Second World War which is responsible for many killings including the pogrom of over 200 Jews during which the victims were put trough the entire cycle of the conveyor belt of the slaughtering house near Bucharest. A five-years old girl corpse was stamped as fit for consumption by the members of the \"Iron Guard\". rnrnOn their website the Roma are considered to be \"a subhuman group which steal our bread, replace our traditions, mug our brothers and kill our parents\" The boss of the Romanian Football League Dumitru Dragomir is member of the Romanian Parliament from the extremist party Romania Mare .The leader of Romania Mare, Corneliu Vadim Tudor said that in the case he will win the election he would \"... isolate the Roma criminals in special colonies..\" in order to \".. stop the transformation of Romania in a Gypsy camp.. \". Dumitru Dragomir was also under investigation for being the owner of an anti-Semitic publication. Giovani Becali the brother of Gigi Becali is also known for his strong views against Roma . The Romanian chief of the referees Ioan Craciunescu recognized that he \"received\" a piece of land from Becali in the best area of Bucharest. rnrnAnti-Gypsyism in Romania and for that matter all around Europe is the acceptable European racism and accordingly largely ignored. rnrnRacist incidents against Roma on the Stadiums are usual and receive no attention as for example in the case of Dinamo Bucuresti supporters who displayed a huge banner of Antonescu during a game viewed by the Romanian Ministry of Interior. rnAt the end of the game on 13th of April the Romanian Football Federation\'s observer Valentin Alexandru said : rnrn\"The game was played in NORMAL conditions\" and there is nothing he would need to report. rnLast year the Romanian institution supposed to combat discrimination CNCD spent a whooping 400 Euros to fight the racism in >the Romanian Stadiums. The 50.000 Swiss Francs (around 30.000 Euros) available from FIFA to combat racism on the stadiums weren\'t needed by the Romanian Federation. rnLast month the Romanian President Traian Basescu hosted and congratulated the owner of Steaua Bucuresti, Mr.Gigi Becali. rnrnDuring the game the gallery was chanting \"We have always hated gypsies, we have always urinated on you\". Considering the over 500 years of forced slavery of Roma in Romania, the Genocide of Roma during the Second World War, the pogroms of Roma at the beginnings of 1990s and the things above is not just the small group ofsupporters of Steaua Bucaresti who hate and would like to urinate on the \"stinky Gypsies\" but a good part of the Romanian society. And most probably not only the Romanian Football Federation would have \"nothing to report\". rnEuropean Roma Information Office http://www.erionet.org/ rn This article comes from RomNews Network Community @ RomNews.com/de http://www.RomNews.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.RomNews.com//modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1676