The Daily Bee: Another Racist Incident in Prague, and the WFS Inches Towards Full Capacity

Good morning, Fear the Wall. Happy Friday.

Another Day, Another Racist Incident in Soccer

At this point, it’s hard to even muster any shock or surprise at a story like this. We’ve seen so many incidents of fans across Europe hurling racist epithets at black or brown footballers, that I’ve almost lost track of them all. This incident took place in Prague, the same city in which Rangers defender Glen Kamara was allegedly abused by Slavia player Ondrej Kudela. Yesterday, the incident took another turn, this time in the home of Slavia rivals Sparta Prague.

Sparta had already been handed a punishment for a racist incident between their fans and Monaco, and therefore closed their stadium to all but a group of around 10,000 schoolchildren.

What resulted was a reality check to those who think that the next generation is uniformly progressive and free from bigotry. According to multiple sources, as reported in the Guardian, Glen Kamara was booed nearly every time he took a touch by the children in the crowd.

I wish I had more commentary or something positive to say, but I unfortunately don’t for this extremely depressing story. A society in which kids’ minds have been so warped as to racially abuse a player is a society that seems almost beyond salvation. I’ve seen many fans demand that UEFA do more to combat racism, but at a certain point, what are they expected to do? Ban fans from the stadium in perpetuity until Czech society magically undergoes a complete overhaul and widespread racism disappears?

Even MORE fans to return to the Westfalenstadion!

Okay, now for some good news. Only a week ago, we described how BVB were going to increase the capacity of the Westfalenstadion to 50,000 due to decreasing COVID cases. Now, that figure is being increased again, to around 67,000. This will include roughly half of the 28,000 standing room spots in the yellow wall.

With this latest capacity increase, BVB is one step closer to full capacity, and the deafening atmosphere of the stadium that we all know and love.

The Daily Buzz

What should be done about the situation in the Czech Republic?