On Friday, Croatian officials denounced pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic chants chanted by fans of Hajduk Split, before its match against Dutch club Ajax in the Conference League football competition, while the Israeli embassy expressed its shock.
Local media reported that groups of Hajduk Split fans, known as “Torcida,” roamed the coastal city before Thursday’s match, chanting slogans such as: “Crush the Jews,” “Get up, Adolf (Hitler),” and “Come on, Ustasha,” in reference to the pro-Nazi Croatian regime during World War II.
Police arrested dozens of fans before Thursday's match due to violence. During the match, Torcida fans lit fireworks and other firecrackers in the stands, causing play to stop for more than ten minutes.
Police said an investigation had been opened into pro-Nazi chants, and suspects were being arrested.
In a statement on Friday, President Zoran Milanovic condemned the incident, describing it as “unacceptable and shameful.” He urged that swift action be taken against those responsible "to show that there is no place in Croatia for glorifying Nazism and the Ustasha ideology."
The Israeli embassy in Zagreb said, in a statement obtained by Agence France-Presse, that it was “deeply shocked by the serious anti-Semitic incident that occurred in Split.” Conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also condemned “anti-Semitic messages... that are completely inconsistent with the values that we want to establish in Croatian society.”
Hajduk Split, which won the match 2-1, apologized in a statement to the European Football Association (UEFA) and to Ajax, who “witnessed scenes that we do not want Europe to remember,” while the Croatian Football Federation also condemned the incident.
Extremist ultra-nationalist fans have distorted Croatia's image over the years, especially by chanting pro-fascist slogans and displaying Ustasha symbols. The pro-Nazi regime killed and persecuted hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anti-fascist Croats.
UEFA had deducted a point from Croatia's score after its fans drew a swastika on the field in Split in 2015, before a match in the 2016 European Cup qualifiers against Italy. Those responsible were never found.
In another context, the Spanish Andoni Iraola, the coach of the Liverpool team, shows full confidence in the young player Trey Nyony, who is preparing to play his first match as a starter in the English Premier League. The young player (19 years old) presented a calm and confident performance during Liverpool's great 6-3 victory over its Austrian host LASK Linz, in the Champions League, in the middle of the week.
In light of the absence of Dutch midfielder Ryan Kravenberg due to suspension, and Hungarian Dominik Soboszlai continuing to suffer from a hamstring injury, Nyony is likely to participate alongside Argentine Alexis McAllister in the next confrontation against Brentford.
For his part, Pierre Sague, coach of the English Crystal Palace team, confirmed that the performance of his players was “very far from” his expectations, following the team’s 3-2 loss to its French host, Olympique Lyonnais, on Thursday evening, in the second round of the league stage of the European Football League. Sag said in statements to Crystal Palace TV after the match: “In the end, we are disappointed with the result, but regarding the first half, we must also be disappointed with our way of playing.”
