Is Danny Jordaan wrong not to take his family to Euro 2012?
A lot has been made by Danny Jordaan regarding the issue he raised on racism by hooligans in the Ukraine and Poland at this year's Euro Football Championship. Is it a step to far I wonder. As the 2010 World Cup Chief Executive Officer, Danny Jordaan has decided not to travel to Euro 2012.
Sky News interviewing Jordaan said that Mr Jordaan knew how bad crime still is in South Africa and bad it was at the time of South Africa hosting the event,and yet he still went ahead urging fans to visit South Africa despite all of that. Is he being over-the-top judgmental,hypocritical and a bit self-righteous when playing up the racism card for this particular tournament in Poland and the Ukraine?
What makes this such a difficult situation is because Danny Jordaan is seen as a event organizer of a major sporting event and him making public his decision not go to the Euros on the basis of racism adds a little extra to people not sure whether they themselves should attend events in Poland and the Ukraine or not.
Danny claims that South Africa' crime problem and fear over security and safety for travelling fans to SA in 2010 is not quite the same as the Ukraine's racism problem. He says you born with a certain skin colour that not very many people would ever change that anyway and secondly that you can control crime in your respective countries whilst a tournament is being played there,by having certain strong mechanism in place,but the same can't be done with someone's nationality or skin colour.
Event organizers according to Danny didn't give him enough assurances that the police and other security staff would look after visiting fans specially those that might be singled out because of their race or skin colour. This was a major stumbling block him where no guarantees were given for their safety while in the Ukraine. And this was the reason he gave as why not attending the event in the Ukraine and Poland.
The fact that UEFA,the organizer,up till today has said that it will issue yellow cards to players that walks off the field when racist chants takes place,without the referee's permission,shows Danny how terrible the situation really is.
Jordaan says his own personal reasons for not going is South Africa's own history of racism with in the country and therefore he can't go to an event where you are threaten on the basis of your skin colour. I thought people in South Africa gets attack anyway on the basis of their skin colour(LOL)!
Is that a fare assumption by Danny Jordaan? Should we play the Devils Advocate and say to South African Danny Jordaan that he is only focussing on one particular group of people who are in the minority and that is wrong. You can't paint everybody with the same brush and as an even organizer,Danny should know that and have a bit of sympathy for the organizers in Poland and the Ukraine.
Danny saying he's not gonna go and a significant number of other people saying that they don't wanna go either is not having a good impact on the health of the whole tournament surely. The majority of Polish and Ukrainians are really nice people towards all races we are told. Is Danny just making a mountain out of a molehill?
Can a sporting event or any other major event go ahead despite outside influences that creeps in to try and disrupt it? Test match rugby this weekend for example!
References:
1.Skynews.com
2.sportinglife.com/football.
3.espnfc.com/.../news/.../uefa-president-platiniyellow-card-players-leaving-the-field-without-referees-permission...
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