The Dark Heart of Eastern Europe: Applying the British Model to Football-Related Violence and Racism

In the summer of 2012, Poland and Ukraine co-hosted the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. A week before kickoff, BBC's investigative journalism program, Panorama, aired a documentary highlighting pervasive violence, racism and anti-Semitism in the football stadiums in both these nations. Violent and racist hooliganism is not a new phenomenon in Europe, but the images and interviews were shocking as hundreds of thousands fans from all over Europe prepared to travel to Eastern Europe for Euro 2012.