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The organized fan communities of the Lithuanian national football team sincerely regret the misunderstanding that occurred during the match between the national teams of Lithuania and France.
We sincerely regret that a caricature mocking the opponent's team fans has become the subject of inadequate anti-racist speculation.
What particularly saddens us is the fact that citizens of a country that itself gifted the principles of freedom of speech and respect for this freedom to European civilization were unable to rise above formal political correctness stereotypes in evaluating our irony. A country that recently had to defend its constitutional values in court against the encroachment of religious dogmatists.
We kindly draw the attention of all interested parties to the fact that the poster in question was merely expressing irony about the fact that the state which has dictated global football trends in the last century is no longer able to cultivate its own national football champions and heroes, compensating for their lack with stars from "overseas territories". It is worth acknowledging that the meaning of the poster content does not fundamentally contradict the principles of freedom of speech as formulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, on the other hand, it certainly does not correspond to the concept of racism valid in international law.
We sincerely regret and apologize to those who were truly offended by our peaceful irony. We want to assure you that this is a misunderstanding, not a conscious manifestation of racist aggression. Lithuanian football fans fundamentally recognize the UEFA and LFF regulations that there is no place for racism in football.
In this situation, it is worth understanding that organized fans are the "twelfth player of the team" in the stands, and our goal is to help OUR TEAM, elevate and inspire IT to success. We sincerely believe that by elevating OUR TEAM, we can also inform our opponents in other stands that we can be proud of what they can no longer achieve...
Our statement was prompted by a principled desire to clarify the misunderstanding and prevent its further escalation. Club members had the honor of discussing this with the LFF leaders. During the conversation, they discussed how to eliminate the consequences of the incorrect interpretation.
We sincerely hope that our words of regret and apology will be heard and accepted, and the topic of the alleged "racist attack" will be stopped from escalating.
The fact that the "racist attack" was indeed alleged is also evidenced by the fact that neither a racist, xenophobic, nor violent attack was recorded against the French national team and their accompanying fans in Lithuania.
Club President Ramūnas Čepaitis
Club Vice President Ingvaras Butautas
