You're reading: Dynamo Kyiv still faces ‘racist’ charges as UEFA assigns ‘inspector’ to probe incidents in Chelsea match (VIDEO)

Ukraine’s Dynamo Kyiv soccer team has so far averted a second punishment for racist fan behavior in less than a year when Europe’s soccer governing body, UEFA, said on Oct. 27 that it has appointed a specially designated “inspector” to verify whether four black fans were attacked during a scoreless tie with England’s Chelsea a week earlier in Olympic Stadium.

UEFA initially said last week that it will “deal”
with the case on Oct. 27, but today announced that its “control, ethics and
disciplinary body” will hold a meeting “at a later stage,” presumably after the
appointed inspector completes its investigation, the European soccer governing
body said in an emailed statement.

Members of the anti-discrimination
group FARE, who had been present at the Champion’s League match, subsequently submitted
video footage of the alleged incident to the Swiss-based soccer institution.
UEFA two days later then said that it was investigating Dynamo for alleged “racist
behavior, crowd disturbances and stairways blocked.”


The state-owned stadium’s
director Volodymyr Spilnichenko didn’t help Dynamo’s cause when he suggested
that black-only seats be allotted for fans during Ukraine’s most successful
soccer club’s matches in a televised interview on Oct. 23.


He said that segregating them may
be a “good idea,” in response to a question posed by a journalist in the audience
on how to secure black supporters of Dynamo. Later, he retracted: “When a journalist asked
me about the segregated seats, I just grimed skeptically. (They) merely took my
words out of the context,” Spilnichenko explained. “Segregation won’t help in
this case, (the country) needs to boost awareness-raising work among the young
people.”


Meanwhile, Dynamo president Ihor
Surkis, whose older brother Grigoriy Surkis is a powerful UEFA vice president,
has called for the alleged racist incident to be investigated by Ukrainian authorities.


“Thank god there are cameras (at Olympic
Stadium), so the police would be able to conduct an investigation if they
want,” Ihor Surkis said in a statement on Dynamo’s website.


Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said that
it has started an investigation into the incident even though none of the alleged
victims filed a report.


Surkis also suggested that police
should be brought back to offer security during soccer matches instead of
stewards, adding that he doesn’t believe that true Dynamo fans were involved in
the incidents.


Parliament must amend legislation
in order for police to provide security at soccer matches again, according to
Ihor Surkis.


“We missed three (consecutive
past) seasons in the Champions League!” “The team shows a progress. And now a
bunch of villains who don’t watch soccer just doing something that is
unacceptable in a civilized society,” Surkis said.


In March, UEFA fined Dynamo €15,000 euros ($17,000) for racist behavior
by fans during a Europa League match against Everton.
The club was punished for setting off fireworks and for insufficient organization
during the 5-2 second-leg win on March 19. UEFA also ordered the partial
closure of Olympic Stadium for the first leg of the quarter-final against Fiorentina.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena
Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv
Post editor Mark Rachkevych contributed to this report.