The Guardian reports that black players in the Holland, including City’s Nigel de Jong, were racially abused while training at Stadion Miejski – the home stadium of Wisla Krakow.
While it is not a Euro 2012 stadium, the Dutch squad are using it for training purposes and there were 25,000 spectators there to watch them train on Thursday in a public session.
Unfortunately, it seems that several hundred members of the crowd appeared to direct monkey chants at black members of the squad who were training on the pitch there including de Jong and Gregory van der Wiel.
The Dutch captain, Mark van Bommel, responded by ordering his players to the opposite side of the ground and was angered by UEFA’s attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet later by putting forward theories about local disappointment that Stadion Miejski wasn’t an official Euro 2012 stadium.
Michel Platini, UEFA president, has said that while players may be punished with a booking for taking matters into their own hands and leaving the pitch without permission due to racial abuse, as City’s Mario Balotelli has declared, the referees have the power to take teams off the pitch if there are serious issues.
England will also be holding a public training session in Krakow today and it is known that the families of two of England’s squad, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, will not be travelling to the tournament because of potential problems at the stadiums.