The Romanian ultras send a message to not just local Hungarians, but Hungary

Despite atrocities, threats and humiliation directed at Hungarians, the Sepsi OSK football team from Transylvania managed a win against U Cluj on their opponent’s home turf at the last round of the Romanian football championship. For the time being, authorities have been silent on the unprecedented scandal involving a match interruption.

An awkward silence has followed the scandal in the stadium that happened at the Romanian football championship match between Universitatea Cluj (Kolozsvár) and Sepsi OSK. The U Cluj fans may not have large numbers, but certainly make up for it in aggression and hatred as one of the most contentious in the country. However, on Monday they went above and beyond with their demonstration. The team, based in Covasna County (Kovászna), ended the match with a 1-0 win but only after enduring 25 minutes of insults towards Hungarians from the home team’s fans. That is when referee Sebastian Colțescu – who was recently falsely accused of racism at the Paris Champions League match and banned for a while – had enough. First, he demanded the xenophobic chants stop via the stadium speakers, then, he paused the game for ten minutes and sent the teams to the locker rooms. Though the match continued, the insults were only partially withheld; instead, they switched to chanting “Romania, Romania”. The handful of Székely fans ironically joined, leading the Cluj fans to “go even crazier.” In the end, the scandal only became tolerable once the rest of the viewers started whistling loud enough to drown out the insults. After the match was over, the announcer turned the music as high as it could go so the insults along with the usual Székely anthem were not audible.

As of Tuesday afternoon, not a single forum has commented on the unprecedented scandal: not the anti-discrimination office, nor the Romanian Football Association, the representatives of the professional league, much less the officials of the Cluj-Napoca club. Not even Emil Boc, former Romanian PM and current mayor of Cluj-Napoca, felt the need to say anything even though he was there and watched the whole event unfold. We can only speculate the reactions that will follow ranging from trivialization to a ban or to a monetary fine, larger than before. The Imre Mikó Law Society of Sepsiszentgyörgy which specializes in noting atrocities against Hungarians and exposing them to international forums, will certainly prepare its report.

According to sources in Cluj-Napoca, a series of provocative, negative articles have appeared concerning recent support for Transylvanian Hungarian infrastructure. These could have contributed significantly to the rising tensions. Following the success of Sepsi OSK, leaders of first league clubs have joined the chorus and the “secret” of the team has even been the topic of political speeches as well.

For the time being, the leaders of Sepsi OSK do not want to deal with this matter publicly, but they did reveal that by the end of the match, they almost felt that their lives could be threatened, but the fences and police stood in the way. Now, they are considering the security of Saturday’s home match against Bucharest Rapid as their most important task at hand and will take further steps depending on the association’s disciplinary committee’s decisions.

Photo: As.ro