Sports, race and geopolitics

Here is another Central European story. A Romanian handball player, Marian Cozma, was stabbed to death at the end of the last week in a club, in the Hungarian city of Veszprem. The perpetrators were portrayed in the Hungarian and Romanian media as part of a "Roma gang", an ethnic group being the target of strong resentments in both countries. Thousands of people gathered and light candles in Veszprem in the memory of the player. Among them, supporters of the Magyar Garda, an organization pledging for a ethnically pure Hungary, asking for retaliation against the Roma. These claims were supported by the media in Hungary, as well as by local political parties, as FIDESz. The Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap risks closure after one of its journalists, Zsolt Bayer, wrote an editorial about the death of Romanian handball player Marian Cozma arguing that the "Gypsies are animals and murderers". The manager of the newspaper took the side of the journalist.

In Romania, they were media reports outlining the solidarity of Hungarians with the family of the handball players, insisting as well on the ethnic origin of the perpetrators and reprints from the Hungarian media regarding the situation of the "Roma gangs". The local TVs presented for hours the travel of the coffin of the player from Veszprem to Bucharest, with stops in towns, were hundreds of people waited for sharing its compassion with the family.

Two other mates of Cozma, Croatian Ivan Pesic and Serbian player Zarko Sesum, were seriously injured and hospitalized during the altercation. Stevan Sesum, the father of the Serbian handball player, owns the largest security agency in Serbia among which former members of Arkan's paramilitary troops. The Romanian media wrote Sesum is intending to send "his men" to Hungary and find the perpetrators - information immediately published in the Hungarian media and forums -, but he denied the purported intentions. Vuk Jeremic, the Serbian Foreign Minister, stated in his recent visit to Budapest they are no information about such attempts.

In this part of the world, sport is a matter of pride and is fuelling the national feelings. The sport players are country brands and often they are playing politics as well. The solidarity with the Romanian player across Hungary was a strong deterrent to a possible interpretation of this incident from the point of view of the old historical disputes between the two countries. But, the focus on the ethnic origin of the perpetrators is a warning equally important. At any time, the stories of dissent could be built and as the story with the "Arkan fighters" - who benefited of extended media features in the Romanian media at the time of the wars in the former Yugoslavia - is offering a slight idea about how far this irresponsabile media reporting could go.