Racism Still Haunts Euro 2016 Dark Horses Croatia

If you were writing a cutting satire about the state of football in eastern Europe, you would have dismissed the situation on the grounds of being too obvious. It might have been pretty funny, in a grim sort of way, if it wasn't so serious and profoundly depressing.

In June last year, Croatia were playing a European Championship qualifier against Italy behind closed doors, a punishment for a sustained bout of racist chanting and other assorted crowd problems during a previous game against Norway. As Andrea Pirlo and Mario Mandzukic gambolled and loafed around the pitch, it became suddenly obvious that not all was right with the grass, specifically some markings near the touchline. A closer look revealed that yes, your eyes weren't deceiving you, and there was indeed a swastika either daubed on or cut into the pitch, about ten yards across, bold as brass in the middle of one half. A swastika on the pitch while Croatia were being punished for previous instances of racism. As irony goes, it's a fairly basic example.

Who put the swastika there, and why they chose that rather than a more 'traditional' symbol of Croatian fascism, has never been quite uncovered. There's even a theory that it wasn't even the work of a genuine right-wing group, rather an attempt by those opposed to the national federation to attract further sanction and humiliation, and thus get them to take the problem more seriously. Such are the complexities of Croatian football.

What is clear is that this is not an isolated or uncommon problem: from racial abuse of Mario Balotelli at Euro 2012, the chanting in the Norway game, to similar songs in the first encounter with Italy in November 2014, incidents of racist abuse during Croatia games have become a depressing inevitability. Perhaps even more troubling is the impression that either the authorities don't regard it as a problem, or are simply ignoring it: either way, there aren't very many particularly progressive steps being taken to eradicate or even substantively tackle racism in Croatian football.

Take Josip Simunic, for example. Previously best known for being the man to whom Graham Poll issued three yellow cards in the 2006 World Cup, Simunic was appointed as Croatia's assistant coach, to work alongside Ante Čačić, in September 2015. That date is significant, because he got the job a few weeks after a 10-game ban from international football expired, a ban received after Simunic led a chant used by Croatian fascist group Ustaše following a game against Iceland. "I did nothing wrong," he said afterwards. "If someone has something against it, that's their problem." He then backed up his words by taking his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where he was unsuccessful, but three weeks after his punishment was served and despite not having any coaching badges, he was gladly welcomed back into the fold. "We rely on Croatian brains," said Croatian FA president Davor Suker (yep, that one) by way of justification.

Furthermore, after they were ordered to play the Italy game sans fans for the trouble against Norway, Damir Vrbanovic, the national federation's chief executive, said: "We are shocked by this draconian punishment for five firecrackers and two racist chants." Quite apart from airily dismissing the racism, note the order in which those two discretions are said: firecrackers first, then racism seemingly a mild afterthought. Shortly afterwards the federation wrote an open letter to Zoran Stevanovic, head of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) and the man who blew the whistle on the racist behaviour, accusing him of pursuing an agenda designed to "have Croatia's national team play its home games without fans" and that his organisation "makes a living off informing Uefa against Croatia supporters." They might as well have just said: "Nobody likes a grass, Zoran."

"It's not that they are really (intentionally) racist," says Croatian journalist Aleksandar Zoliga, "but they are ignorant and don't take this problem seriously. The only concrete actions they've undertaken were organising teams to hold 'No To Racism' paper tiles in domestic games during FARE Action Weeks and making a series of anti-racist/discrimination videos, which very few people have seen. They were only broadcast on public TV once or twice during half-time of the national team's games."

The federation's attempts to combat the problem are cosmetic, to say the least. They prevented their own fans from traveling to away games in their final three qualifiers, against Azerbaijan, Norway and Malta, ostensibly in order to avoid any further instances of racism. However, that appeared to be more an act of self-preservation, designed to avoid any further sanctions rather than being a genuine attempt to combat the problem. "UEFA's punishment (for recent racist incidents) and their explanation shows in no uncertain terms that any future racist-related offence could mean Croatia's expulsion from the European Championship," read their statement announcing the ban. It certainly seems as if they were more annoyed at and worried about their fans being caught, and them being punished, than the actual racism.

Those fears are real – they were docked a point in their qualification group for the swastika incident, so any further incidents could lead to more sanctions at Euro 2016. The majority of fans will travel to France to support Manduzkic, Ivan Rakitic, Luka Modric and the rest of the team; some will be hardcore nationalists, with genuine fascist chants and racist abuse; others may simply attempt to pile further pressure on the federation. Whatever happens, it seems sadly inevitable that we will see further problems this summer.

@NickMiller79