Kolarov and Nastasic

[Dubai Blue]

To be fair mate he's the one who has lived through a genocide so he might be a tad more qualified to comment than you are.

No doubt he is. But what do the people who wrote this letter want to actually happen?

They shouldn't have been wearing their own t-shirts full-stop, and they certainly shouldn't have been wearing ones that may potentially be construed in such a negative way. The idiocy of some footballers will never cease to amaze me.

But BD will get over it because, at the end of the day, it's just a stupid slogan on a stupid t-shirt; it's not going to keep him up at night in a blind rage.

I have gotten over worse things, but the point is that I don't want to deal with these mixed feelings on a day when I was celebrating the victory. I have no problem if they want to wear their national flag but these t-shirts showed that they are a bunch of idiots who clearly don't know, don't care, or worse, support what those slogans truly represented in the 1990s. Imean, they seemed to really take their time making the t-shirts so it wasn't like an accidental mistake.

I can understand why you feel that way. The letter in the OP makes some very strong personal assumptions about the pair (particularly paragraph 3), but is there any evidence other than a poorly conceived t-shirt that they are actually rabid ultra-nationalists who support rape and genocide? I'd have thought the subject matter might have cropped up once or twice in the past if they did indeed hold such extremist views.

Without any other evidence to go off, I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt over this particular incident and put it down to stupidity and a general lack of self-awareness. It wouldn't be the first time a footballer has done something without first engaging his brain.

 

[BosnianDiamond]

No doubt he is. But what do the people who wrote this letter want to actually happen?

They shouldn't have been wearing their own t-shirts full-stop, and they certainly shouldn't have been wearing ones that may potentially be construed in such a negative way. The idiocy of some footballers will never cease to amaze me.

But BD will get over it because, at the end of the day, it's just a stupid slogan on a stupid t-shirt; it's not going to keep him up at night in a blind rage.

I have gotten over worse things, but the point is that I don't want to deal with these mixed feelings on a day when I was celebrating the victory. I have no problem if they want to wear their national flag but these t-shirts showed that they are a bunch of idiots who clearly don't know, don't care, or worse, support what those slogans truly represented in the 1990s. Imean, they seemed to really take their time making the t-shirts so it wasn't like an accidental mistake.

I can understand why you feel that way. The letter in the OP makes some very strong personal assumptions about the pair (particularly paragraph 3), but is there any evidence other than a poorly conceived t-shirt that they are actually rabid ultra-nationalists who support rape and genocide? I'd have thought the subject matter might have cropped up once or twice in the past if they did indeed hold such extremist views.

Without any other evidence to go off, I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt over this particularly incident and put it down to stupidity and a general lack of self-awareness. It wouldn't be the first time a footballer has done something without first engaging his brain.

Fair point, that is why I do think the Club should investigate and make that determination. On the other hand, we should also not make the assumption that they are just a couple of kids who don't know any better.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

It could also be that they are Serbians celebrating as diaspora, both winning the league in the same team in the same country. Its not an identical example but imagine yourself and a lad from your estate are playing together for Zeljeznicar in Bosnia. Would you both have "Manchester is Blue" t-shirts on underneath? I think the meaning is contextual as PB said, and I refuse to believe someone would purposely wear something provocative at such an occasion. Non story.

 

[Sir peace frog]

im sure someone put up a picture of the the Serbian fa badge and it was the same,i could be wrong,but it did look similar.

also edin lived through that period of time,and if it was offensive then having seen edin snap at reported ect im pretty sure he would of done something about it,some people are just looking for" heartache",(who can be the most offended/upset) like the old Diana syndrome.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

im sure someone put up a picture of the the Serbian fa badge and it was the same,i could be wrong,but it did look similar.

also edin lived through that period of time,and if it was offensive then having seen edin snap at reported ect im pretty sure he would of done something about it,some people are just looking for" heartache",(who can be the most offended/upset) like the old Diana syndrome.

Its more the slogan than the badge that is being found offensive.

 

[Dubai Blue]

I have gotten over worse things, but the point is that I don't want to deal with these mixed feelings on a day when I was celebrating the victory. I have no problem if they want to wear their national flag but these t-shirts showed that they are a bunch of idiots who clearly don't know, don't care, or worse, support what those slogans truly represented in the 1990s. Imean, they seemed to really take their time making the t-shirts so it wasn't like an accidental mistake.

I can understand why you feel that way. The letter in the OP makes some very strong personal assumptions about the pair (particularly paragraph 3), but is there any evidence other than a poorly conceived t-shirt that they are actually rabid ultra-nationalists who support rape and genocide? I'd have thought the subject matter might have cropped up once or twice in the past if they did indeed hold such extremist views.

Without any other evidence to go off, I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt over this particularly incident and put it down to stupidity and a general lack of self-awareness. It wouldn't be the first time a footballer has done something without first engaging his brain.

Fair point, that is why I do think the Club should investigate and make that determination. On the other hand, we should also not make the assumption that they are just a couple of kids who don't know any better.

You're right. If the club find out that they meant it in the sense that paragraph 3 suggests, then they should certainly discipline them. But if it turns out that it was something made for them by a friend and they didn't really pay much attention to it then they should just be made to apologise for any offence and told not to be so naive again in the future.

The club definitely needs to put a stop to this sort of stuff in the future though; they're there to represent Manchester City, nothing else.

 

[BosnianDiamond]

im sure someone put up a picture of the the Serbian fa badge and it was the same,i could be wrong,but it did look similar.

also edin lived through that period of time,and if it was offensive then having seen edin snap at reported ect im pretty sure he would of done something about it,some people are just looking for" heartache",(who can be the most offended/upset) like the old Diana syndrome.

Its more the slogan than the badge that is being found offensive.

This. No issue with the badge or flag.

 

[Zizi4City]

No issue here. Same photo of Balkan Boys was posted on the Manchester City Balkan Fans face book page.
It has nothing to do with politics in this case. The slogan was used by the Red Star fans when they played for Club World Champion in Tokyo.

https://hr-hr.facebook.com/mcfc.balkan

 

[Sir peace frog]

im sure someone put up a picture of the the Serbian fa badge and it was the same,i could be wrong,but it did look similar.

also edin lived through that period of time,and if it was offensive then having seen edin snap at reported ect im pretty sure he would of done something about it,some people are just looking for" heartache",(who can be the most offended/upset) like the old Diana syndrome.

Its more the slogan than the badge that is being found offensive.

This. No issue with the badge or flag.

sorry my mistake,its the Serbia to china slogan ?

 

[chris85mcfc]

Just showed this letter to a Croatian lad at work, he said he saw them wear the thirts on tele but he only saw the flag on the shirt, not the slogan.

Apparently the translation 'Serbia to Tokyo' was a term that the Serbian national fans used to taunt other Balkan fans

He said it was 'silly' of them and of all the things they could have wrote on a shirt this was 'unnecessary'

But like some others have pointed out, the common sense opinion would tell you that Dzeko and Jovetic are best mates with them so surely if there was any ill feeling they wouldn't have done it