Racism and voilence set to be the abiding memory of Euro 2012

The 2012 European Championships hasn't even kicked off yet but has already been plunged into what looks to be its first racism controversy after the black players from the Holland squad were subjected to monkey chants while the team had an open training session on Thursday. This was in Krakow, the very same city were England will also be inviting the public to watch them train today (Friday).

    A crowd of several hundred from the 25,000 that attended the session at the home stadium of Wisla Krakow aimed the abuse at players such as Jetro Willems and Nigel de Jong.

Dutch captain Mark van Bommel reacted by moving the training to the other side of the ground and was quoted as saying "It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz (the Holland team visited the World War II concentration camp the previous day, Dutch players were so traumatised by Auschwitz they advised other squads not to go to the camp where a million Jewish people died.
Arsenal’s Robin van Persie was visibly shaken. Tottenham’s Rafael van der Vaart said: “It’s not something you forget. I’m not sure it was a good idea — the squad is in a state of shock.”, personally I have visited Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic and it's lived with me ever since) that you are confronted by this, we will take it up with UEFA and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to take us off the field"

The chants began as the Dutch players started to jog a lap of the pitch to warm up where at one end of the stadium, monkey noises and loud heckling was plain to hear. As they jogged round a second time, these jeers became more vocal and the players quite rightly decided not to circle the field a third time.

UEFA are trying to deny there is a racial motive to the taunts, they claim after checking with the Dutch contingent that the crowd were making themselves heard as Krakow wasn't selected as one of the host cities for the tournament or that some fans didn't want another side to train in their stadium, that it was for Wisla Krakow alone and were simply booing the Dutch players over these concerns.

   Back to Dutch captain Mark van Bommel who has since reacted angrily when it was suggested it wasn't a racial motive by saying "You need to open your ears, if you did hear it and don't want to hear it, then that is even worse" and it's evident PSV's veteran midfielder is clearly unhappy that the powers that be at UEFA are not treating this issue with more seriousness and this is coming as a HUGE embarrassment for UEFA before a ball has even been kicked and means all eyes will be on the Polish supporters when they open the tournament against Greece in Warsaw later today.

 The authorities in Poland are trying to ensure this tournament won't be remembered for racism and Donald Tusk, the country's prime minister has been on an extensive public relations exercise to stress this after BBC's Panorama showed the documentary called 'Stadiums Of Hate' that openly showed the racism and anti-Semitic abuse throughout club matches in Poland, focusing on the two major side's from Krakow, Wisla and Cracovia and also showing the same issue in Ukraine as well.

   UEFA president Michel Platini has said referee's have the power to take teams off the pitch if they feel there is serious racial abuse from the terraces though has made a point of saying after Italy's Mario Balotelli said he would walk of the pitch if he heard racial abuse, that any player leaving the pitch would be booked.  If racism is a serious issue throughout the tournament, there may be calls for Platini to step down as ultimately he's responsible for the games being played in Poland and the Ukraine. Hopefully this is the peak of the situation and we have three weeks of football as a talking point, not bigoted abuse from the hosts.