A BBC Panorama documentary entitled “Stadiums of Hate” that was first aired on June 4th showed football fans in Ukraine beating up south Asians at a match as officials were looking on, Ukrainian skinheads in fight training with a far-right organisation in the forest, hooligans making Nazi salutes and a police officer denying that Nazi salutes had been made. The scenes in Poland showed a group of fans making monkey impressions at a black footballer, and the word “Jew” being used in a derogatory manner.

These images are shown to a shocked Sol Campbell, a black former England football captain. “You could end up coming back in a coffin,” he said. His advice to fans is to “stay home, watch it on TV... don’t even risk it.”

The Polish and Ukrainian governments stated that the BBC grossly exaggerated the reality on the ground by selecting worst cases and presenting them in isolation. No racist attacks against British people have been reported to the British embassy in Warsaw for at least three years. The explanation is not that black people don't go to Poland anyway: John Godson, one of Poland’s two black MPs, said in an interview in Wprost magazine:  “I believe that Poland is a tolerant country. Very much on this matter has changed and continues to change for the better. Poles have ever more opportunity to come into contact with foreigners - such as dark-skinned people - and that is better for them. Recall that in the election 30,000 people voted for me. Do you need any other proof of the tolerance of Poles?”

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