Euro 2016 France-Iceland game hijacked by racist right-wing party
An extreme right-wing Danish political party hijacked the Euro 2016 France-Iceland quarter-final to send a racist message, Iceland fought for the post to be removed.
Racism in football is a serious problem as the video above of incidents suffered in Spanish football will attest, and still there are political organisations and parties who want to hijack the game to spread racist and xenophobic propaganda.
On Sunday the right-wing Danish 'Danskernes Parti' (Party of the Danes) used the France-Iceland game to such ends, posting an anti-immigration image involving French and Icelandic players to their Facebook account:
The photo features a group of French players opposite Icelandic midfielder Aron Gunnarsson, characterising the sporting contest as 'Africa - Europe' with the message: "If you don't want Europe and Denmark to become Africa's back yard, enter you email address here".
The outcry against the post quickly reached the Icelandic Football Federation (KSI), which immediately asked for the image to be removed:
"We apologise for this publication by the Danish party and demand the message be taken down. These opinions have no place in football and we are all fighting against racism in the sport. The battle is far from over. The KSI denounces the propagation of such messages", wrote the federation on its official website.
As of now, the Danish party has yet to remove the post from its site, garnering nearly 700 shares and more than 800 reactions...