16 March 2016

UEFA and Spanish authorities called to act over PSV fans' "racist humiliation" of women beggars in Madrid

 16th March 2016

Charities and campaign groups have today put pressure on Madrid's authorities and UEFA to act after PSV Eindhoven fans humiliated women beggars in Madrid's Plaza Mayor on Tuesday.
The Dutch supporters, who were in the Spanish capital ahead of last night's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid , threw coins at begging women while others burned bank notes in front of them.
Having thrown coins on the floor, the drunken fans cheered heartlessly as the women - mainly understood to be refugees - chased the money that could help feed their families, as well as reports of racial abuse.
The pressure group Movimiento contra la Intolerancia (Movement against Intolerance) have called the actions a "hate crime" and asked for the local authorities to pursue the Dutch supporters for what they call "a racist humiliation" of the victims.
"The authorities have to investigate this using recordings and witness statements," a spokesman said.
"With collaboration from the Dutch embassy we need to identify those who perpetrated these actions."
They also called on UEFA to act, with the European governing body's disciplinary code allowing sanctions when "the human dignity of a group or person is insulted in any way, including skin colour, race, religion or ethnic origin."
It is not the first time Dutch fans have left an unhappy trail across Europe, with Feyenoord fans last year rioting in Rome.
A spokesman for PSV supporters, Harrie Timmermans, callously pointed out that "at least the beggars are better off, financially".


Authorities and UEFA asked to take measures against PSV fans for beggar humiliation in Madrid

The group Movement against Intolerance have asked the appropriate Spanish authorities and UEFA to take action, quoting the disciplinary code which states that sanctions can be taken when "the human dignity of a person or group of people are insulted."

On Wednesday, the Movimiento contra la Intolerancia - Movement against Intolerance - put pressure on the authorities responsible for hate crimes to take measures against the "racist humiliation" that was seen yesterday against homeless people from Romania in Madrid's Plaza Mayor by PSV Eindhoven fans.
In a statement, the group condemned the "humiliating" and "degrading" acts committed prior to the Champions League match to a group of gypsy women of Romanian origin who were begging in the centre of Madrid. The fans of the Dutch team shouted racist insults towards these women, which, according could constitute a crime.
"The authorities should investigate this using recordings and the testimonials available," said a spokesman who went on to say that in conjunction with the Dutch embassy they must identify those responsible for the crimes and punish them.
In addition, requests were made to UEFA with their disciplinary code being cited. This allows for sanctions to be set when "the human dignity of a group or person is insulted for any reason, including skin colour, race, religion or ethnic origin. "Responsibility is also required, he added, to the football club PSV Eindhoven itself.

Vocabulary:
pursue: follow in order to capture.
Chase: follow rapidly, pursue
callous: insensitive, uncaring, unsympathetic  /callously: brutally, cruelly, heartlessly
be better off:  be in better circumstances, more fortunate happier.
To beg: ask for money or charity
To require: order sb to do sth, demand, especially with authority

26 comments:

  1. I believe some people are not showing enough concern about this. It's 2016 and we live in the so-called "first world" and that makes this kind of acts even sadder and more disgusting. I think authorities should do something about this, maybe prison would be too much but at least these people deserve a fine. Not only to punish them for what they did , but to show everyone that this is never okay, we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and clearly these PSV fans showed no respect for those women. And I find even more disturbing Harrie Timmermans' (a spokesman for PSV supporters) statement saying that "at least the beggars are better off, financially". Money should never justify any kind of degrading acts.

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  2. Normally fans are known as people who encourage their favorite team either inside or outside the pitch. However, it is getting common to see a callously behavior of many team fans everywhere, specially football fans who are used to going all together as a massive group in order to feel protected and with the belief that they are the best and have the power to do whathever they want. Therefore, I think it is necessary to put more security to prevent football supporters from doing what they want.

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  3. Normally fans are known as people who encourage their favorite team either inside or outside the pitch. However, it is getting common to see a callously behavior of many team fans everywhere, specially football fans who are used to going all together as a massive group in order to feel protected and with the belief that they are the best and have the power to do whathever they want. Therefore, I think it is necessary to put more security to prevent football supporters from doing what they want.

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  4. I think that what happened in Madrid last Tuesday was shameful. Nobody should be discriminated because of their skin colour or social class, those women were there out of necessity, not because they wanted. PSV fan's behaviour was immoral and unacceptable and that's why I think that they should be punished. Moreover, I believe that people who were there at the moment when everything happened should have done something and the police too.

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  5. This kind of reactions are unforgivable, first of all football is just a game, which people can enjoy watching, and obviously it was not the women’s fault, they were just trying to survive. In my opinion, UEFA have to act quickly against those PSV fans and take measures in order to avoid these situations.

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  6. In my opinion that's an evident example of racism. This behaviour denotes how unsympathetic and insensitive humans can be. So when these tourists were humilliating them, they weren't thinking how these women could be feeling in this situation. I think that they might be judged as criminals against human rights and at least pay compensation to these poor women.

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  7. I firmly agree with the humanitarian organizations that require responsibilities and punishment to the PSV Eindhoven fans. The beggars, whose nationality is not relevant, were humiliated in front of many people and it's rather significant that only a few decided to act and defend the women, while the rest just kept on watching the scene and even laughing. Moreover, this wouldn't have happened if the beggars weren't foreigners and that's why the act has been described as "racist".

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  8. I think the PSV supporters have always had it all, but they lack the most important thing a human being must have, which are values of humanity, charity, respect for peers, regardless of their skin color , religion or ethnicity. In this world in which we live there are people that have it all, and others like the women beggars unfortunately have nothing. Therefore these acts of 'humiliation' should be punished exemplarily, drawing a line so such low acts do not happen again.

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  9. I think that PSV Eindhoven fans shouldn't have acted the way they did because it seems to me they treated beggar women like chickens looking for food. The only distraction that made drunk fans laugh was to throw coins to beggar women whose economic condition is very bad. I think their misbehaviour was disrespectful.

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  10. In my opinion, these racist incidents should be punished exemplarily. Because it shows a bad image of sports' fans. For example I think that those who did these actions should be banned from going to a sports arena for five years. Because they damage the image of one of the best fans in Europe.

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  11. This is the worst side of humans. We can say that people sometimes can be very cruel. The fact of throwing coins to poor people of outwit way, is not good-luck. The UEFA gouvernment should penalize PSV Eindhoven Club, and then, the club should investigate who had been so disrespectful to poor people. I’m shure, if they were them, they wouldn’t accept that fact.
    After this fact, it’s obvious that UEFA will take measures, because this problem has happened because of the Champions League, and UEFA is the organizer (of this tournament). PSV fans should say sorry, and pay a fine because of their bad behavior with poor people in Plaza Mayor.

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  13. First of all I think that these kinds of things should not happen, and particularly when you are another foreigner.
    In my opinion the people who discriminate against the others because they are beggar or black or gypsy, have to be penalized by law. In this particular case we can see how Dutch people ridicule Romanian women throwing coins at them, and this action shows a total lack of respect. To conclude I think that foreigners who commit such aberrations in other countries when they are on holiday should be banned from entering the country.

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  14. First of all I think that these kinds of things should not happen, and particularly when you are another foreigner.
    In my opinion the people who discriminate against the others because they are beggar or black or gypsy, have to be penalized by law. In this particular case we can see how Dutch people ridicule Romanian women throwing coins at them, and this action shows a total lack of respect. To conclude I think that foreigners who commit such aberrations in other countries when they are on holiday should be banned from entering the country.

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  15. First of all I think that these kinds of things should not happen, and particularly when you are another foreigner.
    In my opinion the people who discriminate against the others because they are beggar or black or gypsy, have to be penalized by law. In this particular case we can see how Dutch people ridicule Romanian women throwing coins at them, and this action shows a total lack of respect. To conclude I think that foreigners who commit such aberrations in other countries when they are on holiday should be banned from entering the country.

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  16. It is incredible that this kind of things happens nowadays. This piece of news is an example of sexism, racism and xenophobia caused by a group of young men.
    However, I think this kind of violent acts committed against human dignity are more and more frequent all over the world. In my opinion this must be severely penalized

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  17. In my opinion, what happened in Madrid is unacceptable. Football fans should encourage their players and neither insult nor look down on women who are there by necessity, even if they are of another race. Therefore, UEFA should act to punish this event in order that this would not happen again.

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  18. Unfortunately now a days we still have to see these horrible actions causing a lot of discussions and problems between us. This behaviour calls in question the humanity of people, if we can do this in that situation, I don’t want to imagine what people will do in a conflictive situation. This kind of actions should be penalized, but several times that doesn’t happen, and that causes that it can be repeated.

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  19. In my opinion, these racist actions should be condemned. On the one hand, they give a negative image of football clubs. And secondly, human dignity is not respected. These women, regardless of their origin or race, have been humiliated and undervalued. This action should not be repeated, and therefore the culprits of this racist act should be punished.

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  20. I think that this kind of attitudes should be banned because everybody are different in the world and sometimes we think that we are better than another person just for the reason of being from another town or place,so I think that these people should be penalized.

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  21. I think that this kind of attitudes should be banned because everybody are different in the world and sometimes we think that we are better than another person just for the reason of being from another town or place,so I think that these people should be penalized.

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  22. In my opinion these people should be seriously punished for doing such humiliation to humiliating a few poor women that only wanted to recollect some money so as to buy food. It's ok if you don't give them anything, it's not your obligation, but you can't make fun of them.

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  23. I reckon that PSV fans have shown a lack of education and respect. What they have done is unjustifiable because they have adopted an attitude of superiority which is completely inadequate and degrading. The women beggars deserve a minimal respect for their human condition like all of us. So, the PSV fans should definitely be pursued and the Movement against Intolerance is right, the authorities have to react to the humiliation of these women.

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  25. PSV supporters, if they can be called like this because they look like animals rather than people, adopted and awful and intolerant behaviour that must be punished at least, with a fine. But, this situation, is more than the simple fact of having a bad behaviour, it’s about all the human rights that had been violated when that people showed their worse face, it’s about respect and tolerance between all citizens, because if this situation has happened once, it can happen again, and this is what these human organizations should prevent.

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  26. PSV supporters, if they can be called like this because they look like animals rather than people, adopted and awful and intolerant behaviour that must be punished at least, with a fine. But, this situation, is more than the simple fact of having a bad behaviour, it’s about all the human rights that had been violated when that people showed their worse face, it’s about respect and tolerance between all citizens, because if this situation has happened once, it can happen again, and this is what these human organizations should prevent.

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