Dutch Captain Mark van Bommel said the team’s black players were subjected to monkey chants in the Polish city as they trained for the upcoming European Football Championship.
The Dutch FA admitted that while some players had reported hearing racist abuse, those chants had been mixed with Polish fans making political protests.
Up to 20,000 fans watched the training session. Uefa reportedly stated that there had been a protest about Krakow not being given any Euro 2012 matches.
While head coach Bert van Marwijk said that he did not hear any racist abuse, van Bommel countered the claims that it had been a protest against Euro 2012 organisers when he said: “Open your ears. If you did hear it, and don’t want to hear it, that is even worse.”
However, the Netherlands will make no official complaint against the alleged abuse, and Uefa said it had no plans to investigate the allegations.
Last month, BBC’s Panorama reported on potential racism during Euro 2012 and showed footage of Ukraine supporters giving Nazi salutes and directing monkey noises at black players.
Image: Getty
