EURO 2012: UEFA Confrims Reports Racist 'Monkey Chants' At Holland Public Training Session [VIDEO]

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, has confirmed reports of racist incidents at the Netherlands' public Euro 2012 training session this week.

Members of Bert van Marwijk's European Championship squad were in the midst of a training session when they were subjected to monkey chants.

Netherlands captain Mark van Bommel has said in an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper that the Oranje were forced to train away from the 25,000 fans who had turned up to watch them in the southern city of Krakow on Wednesday.

We all heard the monkey chants, he was quoted as saying. We can't accept that. We reacted well and the situation was sorted.

While the UEFA had not received any formal complaint from the Dutch football federation, they did eventually acknowledge the racist incidents on the afternoon of Friday, June 08.

The confirmation comes after a senior UEFA official previously denied that there had been any racist chants as well as an angry response to a BBC programme last month which claimed that far-right gangs were prevalent in Polish and Ukrainian soccer.

The UEFA chairman acknowledged the issue of racism but said both Poland and Ukraine had made significant advances in stamping it out.

During the tournament, if any one of us is confronted with such a thing, we'll immediately go to the referee to ask him to intervene, van Bommel , who will line-up alongside his team-mates against Denmark on Saturday in Kharkiv, Ukraine, said in the interview.

According to a report done by the Associated Foreign Press, Poland, Ukraine and UEFA president Michel Platini have all tried to downplay fears of racist incidents, which provoked the families of two black England players to say they would not be travelling to watch the tournament.

It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz, that you are confronted with this. The PSV Eindhoven midfielder told AFP.

England goalkeeper Joe Hart said the issue had been discussed within the team.

He said: Our advice is just get on with it and see how Uefa and the referee deal with it - it is not for us to do.