“The calls against Albanians continue” – hatred in the stands, institutions asleep!

“The calls against Albanians continue” – hatred in the stands, institutions asleep!

Instead of supporting sports clubs in stadiums and halls, Macedonian fans continue with nationalist chants calling for gas chambers and death for Albanians. Institutions are acting with ‘turtle’ steps in condemning and preventing these phenomena in sports grounds, while the impunity of nationalist chants has led to their constant repetition in sports matches, writes Portalb.mk. 

Hate speech and anti-Albanian chants have not stopped on the steps of the stadiums. In the match between KF Vardar and KF Tikvesh valid for week 29, the local fans ‘Komitët’, chanted that “The good Albanian is the dead Albanian”. 

Even though more than a week has passed since the day Vardar fans chanted “death to Albanians”, the FFM Disciplinary Committee did not see fit to punish Vardar for organizing matches as hosts.

The ‘Komitët’ group cheers, in addition to KF Vardar, they also support the North Macedonian national team, where the team captain is the Albanian from Skopje – Enis Bardhi, but besides him in the first team there are other Albanian footballers, these players receive insults from the Macedonian fans themselves.

So far, due to nationalist and anti-Albanian chants, KFVardari has been punished by the FFM with only one match behind closed doors and a 5.000 euro fine.

We remind you that this is not the only case of anti-Albanian chants in stadiums. Such language recently began during the basketball match between North Macedonia and Romania, valid for the World Cup qualifiers.

The same hate speech continued in several football matches, such as the match between Vardarand Union, or even in other matches where he played KF Vardar, KF Pelisteri and KF Tikveshi, whether with Albanian or Macedonian teams, Macedonian fans cheered demanding death or gas chambers for Albanians. 

Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination (CPPD), for Portalb.mk expressed concern about the frequent occurrences of hate speech in sports stands. According to them, these are not just isolated incidents, but indicate deeper social problems related to intolerance, discrimination and hate speech based on ethnicity, nationality or other grounds. 

The KPMD calls on competent institutions, sports federations and clubs to take more effective measures to prevent and sanction such phenomena, including fan education, increased supervision and continuous implementation of legal provisions. / Portalb