Croatian police arrest three over antisemitic chants before Hajduk Split-Ajax match

Three people are under arrest in Split after a Hajduk Split supporters' march on Thursday, Oct. 15, turned into a parade of Nazi slogans ahead of the club's UEFA Conference League match against Ajax.

Split police said the three are suspected of public incitement to violence and hatred under Article 325 of Croatia's Criminal Code. The offence carries a prison sentence of up to three years.

Police said several other people have been identified and that procedures to locate and arrest them are under way. Officers are still going through video of the procession to identify more suspects.

What was chanted

Members of the Torcida, Hajduk's ultra group, marched toward Poljud Stadium chanting "Crush the Jews," "Rise up Adolf (Hitler)" and "Let's go Ustasha," according to local media. The Ustasha were Croatia's World War II pro-Nazi regime, which killed and persecuted hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians.

The daily Slobodna Dalmacija also reported chants of "Auschwitz." Police confirmed that shouts "with elements of a punishable content" were recorded during the home fans' procession and that a criminal investigation was opened.

Balkan Insight reported that the column was led by an old Volkswagen Golf carrying a coffin on its roof marked "Ajax." The outlet also reported that everyone detained is a Torcida member already known to police, and that an investigating judge will decide whether to hold them in pretrial custody.

Ajax's most devoted fans have called themselves "Superjoden," or "super-Jews," for decades, a tradition rooted in their answer to antisemitic abuse from rival supporters. Many of them are not Jewish.

The match itself

Police put attendance at about 31,273, including roughly 1,413 Ajax supporters. They said no violent incidents were recorded during the match, and that Ajax fans and players were escorted without trouble.

Twenty-eight people, all home supporters, were taken to police premises during the security operation. Police listed pyrotechnics, balaclavas, mouthguards and bandaged gloves among the reasons, alongside other offences and preventive measures.

Torcida fans did set off flares and firecrackers in the stands, stopping play for 10 to 12 minutes, according to differing accounts. Hajduk won 2-1. It was the club's first appearance in the main stage of European competition since 2010.

The political response

President Zoran Milanović called the incident "unacceptable and shameful" in a statement Friday. He urged swift action against the perpetrators to "show that there is no place in Croatia for the glorification of Nazism and Ustasha ideology." He also stressed that statements of condemnation alone are not enough and that measures and sanctions are needed.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, a conservative, condemned "messages of anti-Semitism" as "completely at odds with the values we want to uphold in Croatian society." The Croatian government, the mayor of Split, several political parties and the Croatian football federation also condemned the chants.

Israel's embassy in Zagreb said it was "deeply shocked by the serious anti-Semitic incident that took place in Split" and condemned it "in the strongest possible terms."

Hajduk apologised to UEFA and Ajax, saying the visitors "witnessed scenes which we do not want Europe to remember." Balkan Insight noted that the statement did not separately mention the pre-match chants.

A record critics point to

The criticism of Croatian authorities is longstanding. Critics accuse them of failing to sanction the use of Ustasha emblems, and of tolerating a growing acceptance of the country's pro-Nazi past. Milanović's call for sanctions is aimed at exactly that gap.

The arrests are a different response from the one in 2015, when fans painted a swastika on the pitch at Split before a Euro 2016 qualifier with Italy. UEFA docked Croatia a point, and the perpetrators were never found.

The Croatian authorities now have identified suspects on video, and police have said they are acting on it. The government and Hajduk have both publicly condemned the chants.

What comes next

The investigating judge's decision on custody is the next test of how seriously the case is prosecuted. More arrests are expected as police finish reviewing the footage.

Hajduk also faces possible UEFA discipline over the flares and the stoppage. Balkan Insight reports the club may receive a substantial fine. UEFA has not announced a decision on the pyrotechnics or the chants.