12 Hajduk Fans Arrested After Antisemitic Chants and Flares Halt the Ajax Match

Hajduk Split waited 16 years for a European night like Thursday’s, and by Friday lunchtime the result was the smallest part of it. Police in Split arrested 12 supporters on charges of inciting violence and hatred, AP reports, after a pre-match march turned antisemitic and flares thrown during the game stopped play for 12 minutes. Hajduk beat Ajax 2-1 in the Conference League. Almost nobody in Croatia is talking about the football.

What happened on the march through Split?

The trouble started before the stadium. AP reports thousands of Hajduk supporters marched on Thursday evening behind a car carrying a mock coffin bearing Ajax’s name, chanting insults against Jews and slogans in praise of Adolf Hitler. The target was not random: Ajax has a long historical association with Amsterdam’s Jewish community. The Croatian federation, HNS, said the chanting happened on the procession towards Poljud, outside the stadium, and ruled that the location changed nothing about football’s responsibility to condemn it, Nogomania reports. It is the second time this month European football has had to answer for what a crowd did rather than what a referee decided, after Suriname called on FIFA and Concacaf to act over alleged racist abuse in Guatemala.

Why did the match stop for 12 minutes?

Because the stands joined in. AP reports fans clashed with police and threw flares and other objects onto the field, forcing the 12-minute interruption. The report of the club’s apology adds the detail that explains the timing: supporters set off fireworks en masse in the 75th minute to mark 75 years of the club’s hardcore fan group, until, for a while, the pitch could barely be seen, the LiveScore report says. HNS separately criticised the pyrotechnics, warning of safety risks and of disciplinary and financial consequences for Hajduk. Split has already seen one crowd incident become the whole story this season, when Cucurella handed a referee his dropped red card in Croatia’s game against Spain, but that was gamesmanship. This was something else entirely.

Who has condemned the chanting?

Effectively the whole Croatian state. President Zoran Milanovic condemned the incident and urged measures and sanctions showing there is no place for the glorification of Nazism in Croatia, AP reports. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic condemned the antisemitic messages as completely at odds with the values Croatian society wants to uphold, according to the AFP reporting carried by Al Jazeera. The Israeli Embassy in Zagreb said it was deeply shocked and urged a government response. HNS, for its part, said the chants spread hatred and glorified Nazism, the Ustase movement and their crimes, and that they damaged the reputation of Hajduk, Croatian football and Croatia, Nogomania reports. The federation backed the authorities in establishing individual responsibility. The response has the same shape as the fallout when Millwall’s match was paused over alleged racist chanting: the argument is no longer about whether it happened, but about what the punishment should be.

What have Hajduk themselves said?

Sorry, in two voices. Head coach Gonzalo Garcia apologised to Ajax and UEFA at the post-match press conference, and the club then posted its own statement apologising to UEFA and to Ajax’s coaching staff and players for scenes it does not want European football to remember it by, the LiveScore report says. AP reports the club added that the behaviour reflected only some of its fans, and that it is ready to take the consequences as a club. That last line matters, because consequences are now the open question: AP notes Hajduk could face UEFA disciplinary action over the disruption, on top of whatever the police investigation produces.

What happens next?

Three tracks, none of them quick. Police have arrested 12 people and indicated more arrests are possible. UEFA has not yet announced a disciplinary case, but the federation’s own warning about disciplinary and financial consequences tells you the club expects one. And the football has to be played in the middle of it: the 2-1 win, Hajduk’s first major European victory in 16 years, with tickets for the night having sold out in 50 minutes, Nogomania reports, is the result the club wanted remembered. Instead the week belongs to the march, the flares and the arrests, in a season where a Kenyan playoff was abandoned after a referee was attacked and crowd behaviour keeps taking the fixture over. Hajduk’s next European night will be played under a scrutiny Thursday earned.