Post by QPR Report on Dec 5, 2008 22:15:33 GMT
Starting a second thread re racism and anti-semitism in Football.
"Racist Chanting Declines & Arrests Including QPR"
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=706&page=1
Reposting from last year (which I had on my blog).
The Observer - Sunday October 28 2007
Alive and unchecked - a wave of anti-Jewish hate - Action demanded on problem that brings echoes of the game's bad old days, reports Anna
'Spurs are on their way to Belsen, Hitler's gonna gas 'em again...' It's not a song you would expect to hear on a family day out at a Premier League game, but it is one of several anti-Semitic chants still heard at some top-flight grounds. While the message about anti-black abuse is in the public consciousness, campaigners say that anti-Semitism is alive - and unchecked.
The past few months have featured several high-profile recorded incidents of anti-Semitic abuse, alongside growing evidence from lower levels of the game. The problem centres around clubs in London - where there are large Jewish communities - where songs about concentration camps and gas chamber hissing noises are a regular feature at certain games. The government recently reported a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in wider society and, with the appointment of Avram Grant as Chelsea manager, the issue in football has been brought into focus after the club received anti-Semitic hate mail.
Britain's Jewish sports group says action is overdue. Martin Berliner, chief executive of Maccabi GB, says: 'I'm a Chelsea fan and I can't listen to songs about concentration camps any more. My father's parents died in the Holocaust. When Avram Grant was appointed, fans came on Chelsea TV and asked why they had appointed a Jew who would not work on Yom Kippur. There's a lot of Jewish conspiracy-theory talk kicking about, like Ben Haim only being picked because he's Jewish. The other week Haim made a mistake and someone behind me stood up and shouted, "You stupid Yid!" Nobody complained.'
Comedian and author David Baddiel agrees. 'Literally every week there is some anti-Semitic chanting at Stamford Bridge. It often takes place regardless of whether Tottenham are playing or not. It's even happened to me. I went to get a hotdog in an area where I don't usually sit and they started chanting "Yiddo" at me.' Baddiel says he can understand the humour in some of it, but feels that a serious side of the issue is too often overlooked. 'Can you imagine if the Chelsea crowd was shouting "N-Word" or "Paki"? People would actually be talking about taking legal action.'
Abuse has been heard at Premier League grounds from Arsenal to Wigan. A complicating factor is Tottenham's close association with the problem - whether they are playing or not, many of the chants are directed at the club or their former players. Their fans' self-identification as 'Yids' - a derogatory word for a Jew - is problematic. Last week fans and representatives of the Tottenham Supporters Trust, Maccabi GB and Kick It Out debated the issue. Supporters say the term is used as a 'badge of honour', which aligns Jews and non-Jews in a proud allegiance to the club, but campaigners say it provokes and legitimises abuse from rival fans. As both sets of fans often interchange 'Yid' for 'Jew', or words depicting a relationship to Israel or Palestine, the demarcation lines separating football from religion, race, politics and anti-Semitism are decidedly blurred.
Chelsea want the term 'Yid' eradicated from their ground. 'We make it clear that we have a policy of zero tolerance,' says Simon Greenberg, director of communications. 'There is no justification in our eyes. We're not going to get into a philosophical debate about it.' But Tottenham insist the FA should be taking the lead and are wary of being made a scapegoat. 'It is a complex issue and there are strong feelings on both sides. But the fans themselves have not raised it,' says their spokesperson.
And that may be a key part of the problem: a scarcity of high-profile voices from within the Jewish football community. Many of those approached by Observer Sport declined to be interviewed for fear of alienating themselves in the football world. Others did not want to draw attention to their Jewish identity and in some cases clubs felt it too controversial for their staff to discuss. The reticence reminds some of the days when black players were too frightened to speak about racism.
One man who is happy to be the lone voice is lawyer and Kick It Out board advisory member Jonathan Metliss. A lifelong football fan, Metliss has been campaigning against anti-Semitism since the early 1980s. 'My father fought the Mosleyites. When I started campaigning nobody would take it seriously, but I've since put this issue on the map.' Metliss says 'Yid' is unquestionably offensive. 'It's like calling a Pakistani a Paki. A lot of guys I know won't take their kids to football because of it.'
Simon Johnson, the FA's director of corporate affairs, concedes that there is a problem. 'We have not yet made it as taboo to abuse somebody who is Jewish,' says Johnson. 'People do not understand that it's offensive to call someone an 'effing Yid', or to hiss: they think it's funny. Our challenge is to make it a taboo - and I accept we've got some catching up to do.'
Some of the recorded incidents of anti-Semitism in England this year
· 'I'd rather be a Pikey than a Jew' - plus Nazi salutes and gas-chamber hissing
Southend fans at Spurs, January
· 'Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz, Hitler's going to gas them again'
Chelsea fans v Sheffield United, March
· Video of fans chanting 'I'd rather be a Paki than a Jew' posted on YouTube
West Ham fans v Tottenham, March
· 'We've got Cesc Fabregas, you yids are scared of gas'
Arsenal fans at Spurs, September
· 'We'd rather have Mourinho than a Jew'
Chelsea fans v Fulham, September
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/oct/28/newsstory.sport2
