Sports
Ultranationalist Croats have shouted the slogan "Kill the Serb" during some sporting events. According to some Croatian media, a group of youths chanted this during a concert by Marko Perković Thompson.
In January 2006, the Ustasha song "Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara" was played publicly during the interval of an international club volleyball match. Officials later attributed the incident to a single individual, and the police did not intervene.
During a friendly match between Croatia and Italy in Livorno in 2006, a small group of Croatian fans stood in a swastika formation in response to Italians fans waving communist flags and display of a picture of Josip Broz Tito; UEFA penalized the Croatian Football Federation for the incident.
In 2007, Croatian football fans formed the letter U in a stadium during a match in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In October 2007, the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija reported that NK Imotski's official clothing items featured Ustaša-related symbols (The letter U and the Independent State of Croatia-resembling coat of arms inside the letter. That was, in fact, the logo of the club's leading sponsor, the edile company gUj (meaning "Gojko Und Jure"). Some historians and critics claim the symbols display is an open praising of the Ustaše. The club's president, Nediljko Tolo, said: "As long as the sponsor finances our club, we will carry those symbols on our dresses". In early November 2007, the Croatian Second League Association announced that NK Imotski violated FIFA, Croatian Football Federation rules and laws of the Republic of Croatia. NK Imotski had to end a sponsorship deal with gUj until the company changes its logo. NK Imotski had to find new uniforms for the players and remove all gUj advertisements around the stadium.
In November 2007, it was reported that members of the Hajduk Split supporters' group, Torcida Split, were wearing black T-shirts featuring the words "Hajduk jugend" (alluding to Hitlerjugend) in Fraktur and an eagle atop Hajduk's logo (resembling a Nazi Party symbol). The T-shirts were also being sold on Torcida's website. Stipe Lekić, the secretary of Torcida said to reporters that "Torcida has always been leaning to the right", but rejecting accusations that the T-shirts have connections with Nazism. He said that he was wearing the T-shirt because he liked the symbols.
Also in November 2007, a swastika appeared on Osijek's Gradski vrt football field, together with the slogan "Play, fags!" That was, reportedly done before the match with Međimurje. NK Osijek's and their Kohorta fan association condemned the acts.
In June 2012, the Croatian and German footboll federations were fined for singing songs associated with Nazism and wearing Nazi symbols.
Read more about this topic: Far Right In Croatia
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“I looked so much like a guy you couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl. I had no hair, I wore guys’ clothes, I walked like a guy ... [ellipsis in source] I didn’t do anything right except sports. I was a social dropout, but sports was a way I could be acceptable to other kids and to my family.”
—Karen Logan (b. 1949)
“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green;
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“Come, my Celia, let us prove
While we may the sports of love;
Time will not be ours forever,
He at length our good will sever.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)