Racism, Violence & Dpitting Mars the Match Between Ujpest & Steaua Bucharest

Eastern European football has once again shamed itself as scenes of hooliganism, violence, racism, and generally thuggish behaviour broke out at the Europa League meeting between Hungarian outfit Ujpest and their Romanian counterparts, Steaua Bucharest.

The trouble began brewing during the half-time interval, resulting in the second half kicking off 20 minutes late. Fishing for a fight, the Hungarian fans were clearly caught on camera attempting to provoke a fight with the Romanian travelling support as the visiting fans were pelted with lit torches and flares being thrown into their seating section. In response, the Steaua fans hurled chairs at the Ujpest Ultras.

Eventually the riot police were sent in to restore order, with a buffer zone created between the warring fans and a healthy dose of tear gas was used in order to calm down the raging supporters.

According to local reports, during the first half of the match the Hungarian supporters sang songs defaming Romania and repeatedly called the guests Gypsies as well as displaying the Nazi salute and roaring “sieg heil.”

Footage of the violence can be seen here and here.

And the trouble did not stop there. At fulltime, cameras appeared to catch a rogue Hungarian journalist approaching Steaua’s Romeo Surdu and spitting on the footballer’s neck when his back was turned.

A Romanian news report into the spitting incident can be seen here.