Ukranians

A history lesson

A fascinating documentary last week about Nazi football hooligans in the Ukraine and Poland ahead of this year's European Championship.

Of course, everyone knows that Hitler and his Nazi cronies were quite the most unpleasant volk on the planet during the short-lived “Thousand Year Reich”. What is less well-known is the well-documented flirtation of the Ukrainians and some Poles with some of the more despicable acts of the Germans.

BTW, I have never understood why today we are so concerned with the Germans and what their attitude is to the EU.. They owe us. They owe us big-time. The only reason their economy is now so strong is that it is built on the back of the post-war handouts, chiefly from the US but also from other European countries. When they get on their high horse about Greek debt it makes me sick. Do they remember what they did to the Greeks only a short time ago? If I were in charge in Athens I'd invade the bastards and take all the money I needed from the Bundesbank. All citizens of countries devastated by the Germans in WWII should be entitled to a new Mercedes. Audi or BMW when they need one. Simply turn up and collect. See how much money they have then!

Back to the football. Some bright spark decided that rewarding the bad boys of Europe with a major tournament would be a good idea. What tosh!

Most of the really nasty concentration camp guards were Ukrainian. The Ukrainian anti-Semitism is well know and well-documented. So now we are to celebrate their culture, including Neo-Nazi hoodlums, and reward them with a major championship? Crazy.

Unfortunately, the “plucky Poles” of legend pale into insignificance when set against the collaboration of a large proportion of the Polish population who not only collaborated with the Germans but actively supported the final solution. It's no accident that a large proportion of the Nazi death camps were in Poland. Local Poles could be relied on to keep stum. The Polish Home Guard refused to arm the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto. No Pole raised their head above the parapet to save the Jews of Poland from mass extermination.

I saw an interview with the head of the Polish FA saying that there is no neo-Nazi problem in Polish football. Time will tell, but it still looks like UEFA are rewarding criminal behaviour.

Before we go further, let us deal with the “sins of the fathers” argument. It is crap. Nations which have contributed to mass murder and torture in the 20^th century will need a lot more that 70 years to redeem themselves. We should have no truck with those who would forget the past for they are destined to relive it in the future.

Back to football. I enjoyed the Italian politician who suggested that in the wake of the match-fixing debacle in Italy all football should be banned for, say, three years. I want this man on my team. What a blessing it would be.

Is it only consequential that the most base elements of society find expression at a football match?

It is not. There are nutters everywhere, but only football gives them an excuse to get together and a rationale to behave like morons. Why?

Because football in inherently inane. Football relies on so-called supporters hating the opposition as well as “supporting” their own team. It is beyond contempt. Football provides the vehicle for morons to behave appallingly and call it legitimate. Our Ukrainian friends were defended by their FA saying that their chanting anti-Semitic garbage was OK since one of the local teams was owned by Jews. Unbelievable.

When I take over football will be played in the park. Leagues will be outlawed. I'd love to see Cartoon Rooney try to make a living doing something useful, like hospital porter.

I await the day.