Italian soccer player Mario Balotelli has issued a warning to the upcoming European Championship organizers that he will walk off the pitch if he is the target of racial abuse. The world's second largest football tournament will kick off in Warsaw, Poland on June 8th. Games will be jointly held in Poland and Ukraine. Balotelli's comments come just days after an undercover BBC documentary on racism at Euro 2012's host cities. The programme, entitled 'Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate,' showed fans making Nazi salutes and monkey chants towards black players. Some of England's black players have said their families would not travel to watch the games because of the fear of potential violence. Balotelli made his intentions clear in an interview with the 'France Football' magazine. He said: "I cannot bear racism. It's unacceptable for me. If it happened again I would straight away leave the pitch and go home. We are in 2012. It can't happen….I hope it will pass without problem." The player has had plenty of experience of suffering racial abuse, including having a banana thrown at him in Rome. Talking about that incident, he said: "If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to jail because I will kill them." Ukraine's foreign ministry said racism in Ukrainian football was a "dreamed up and mythical problem" and that racism was far worse in EU countries.

A German politician has warned Greece his country will not continue to pour money into Greece to keep it afloat. Germany has been the main contributor in providing funds to keep Greece's economy from collapsing. It has twice contributed to huge, multi-billion-dollar bailouts to help the Greek economy. Fears are widespread that Greece will go bankrupt, which could have severe consequences for the rest of the Eurozone and cause turmoil on world financial markets. Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told reporters that he was happy for Germany to help Greece as long as it keeps its promises regarding austerity measures. He said: "We're not willing to pour money into a bottomless pit."

IMF chief Christine Lagarde was unsympathetic to Greece's situation when compared to suffering in the rest of the world. She angered many Greeks when she suggested they were a nation of tax evaders. She told reporters: "As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time.…I think they should also help themselves collectively." She added: "I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get two hours of teaching a day….I have them in my mind all the time because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens." Greece's socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos accused Ms Lagarde of "insulting the Greek people".