Say no to UEFA – György Szöllősi's opinion piece

It's not surprising that upon hearing the European Football Association's judgment on the closure of the Puskás Aréna, Hungarians clenched their fists. Especially after Budapest was the only sold-out venue, had the best atmosphere, perfectly organized the European Championship, and where every match was a celebration of football. One lies who claims that any racism or invidious fan demonstration would have characterized these clashes. UEFA “blackmailed” England to ease the quarantine rules and lift the restrictions on the stands enough to prevent it from saying that Budapest, with the lavish venue, the excellent Hungarian team, the organizing staff doing months of hard work, and the Puskás Arena, which was on standby until the last minute as a reserve venue with flawless features and perfect preparedness, could have had more spectators. And what is UEFA's response to Hungary's great performance? Well, based on the alleged audio and video recordings made by the agents of the "FARE network" ("Fight against racism in Europe") acting as an inquisition organization, they are closing the Puskás Aréna, home of the Hungarian national team, for several matches.

If we are familiar with the regulation using 'zero tolerance' in such cases, the (near) past of Hungarian fans who are considered recidivists and UEFA's cooperation with this so-called civil organization, then we can bitterly conclude that the members of the disciplinary committee had very little room for maneuver. They had to make the decision they had taken... which is still unacceptable. No wonder the Hungarians' sense of justice rebels against it, against the double standards, against the impermissible collective punishment because 1) countries whose fans directly threaten the game, or the players (shine laser in their eyes, throw things at them), they get away with a small fine, or 2) UEFA does not even investigate the case of the provocateur running onto the pitch desecrating the Hungarian national anthem due to lack of organizational shortcomings, and because 3) it is almost impossible to prevent shouting and presenting sneaked-in banners. Also, it is extremely disproportional to punish tens of thousands of decent spectators, the whole team, and the entire nation, because of a few dozen extremist supporters. The rule simply makes the organizing association responsible for everything, and when UEFA itself is the host, it should punish itself at the European Championship, but the national federation is charged for the actions committed abroad of its supporters.

So, even if there is only one spectator in every match who shouts a sentence that can be qualified as exclusionary and someone records it and sends it to UEFA, then the European federation will impose a closed-door penalty over and over again. Horrendous. Two solutions are possible. On the one hand, it would be good to make the actually counterproductive regulation realistic that may have been in good faith or under political pressure. I am sure that Sándor Csányi, as president of the Hungarian Football Federation and UEFA vice-president, has been fighting for this for a long time. On the other hand, we should not excuse those for whom we are all punished, who consider it a good joke to chant "Bonjour, f****t French!” They should be accountable. If they were to be identified and, say, were to make up for the hundreds of millions of Forints lost in ticket revenue, they would not be so happy about it. And we all could go to national team matches.

Translated by Vanda Orosz.