Transylvanian football team FK Csíkszereda started the Romanian second division championship on August 4 with a 1-0 away defeat against CSA Steaua Bucharest under ominous conditions: fans of the home team shouted anti-Hungarian slogans and even spat on the guest players.
“Csíkszereda experienced a reception at the championship match against Steaua in Bucharest, reminiscent of the darkest times of Romanian pseudo-democracy. In a way that is unparalleled within the European Union, as the team belongs to the Ministry of Defense and is run on public funds, about 2,500 of its ultra supporters (…) tried to intimidate the team of FK Csíkszereda and indirectly the whole Hungarian community in Romania with intolerant anti-Hungarian rhymes”, the club wrote in a statement.
They added that the security personnel at the match did not intervene. The club turned to the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) for help in combating all forms of defamation against the community, as well as for bringing to justice those who support the disgraceful behavior of ultras at the sports association belonging to the Ministry of Defense.
The RMDSZ – currently part of a coalition government – strongly condemned the behavior experienced at the match, and the Anti-Violence Committee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched an internal investigation into the matter.
“Such discriminatory and aggressive acts must be punished immediately and severely, which is why I call on all those who analyze these incidents, starting with the Romanian Football Association, to bring the perpetrators to justice. Sport should bring people closer together, not incite against each other,” Hungarian Minister of Youth and Sports Eduárd Novák said.
In the past few years, the sport’s governing body FIFA fined Romania on several occasions for the nationalist behavior of Romanian football fans.
Title image: Supporters of Bucharest football club Steaua at the match against Csíkszereda FK. (source: Nemzeti Sport)
