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SOCCER IN THE UK
Nasty Antisemitism Infects
Britain’s Beautiful Game
By Ivor Davis
HAVE just returned to California from
London with the sad news that "The Beautiful Game"—as
passionate followers of football (or soccer as it’s referred to in
America) — is in serious danger of turning into a very ugly game.
A particularly nasty form of antisemitism has
erupted during the games of one of the most glamorous and successful
teams in London.
To me this is a particular tragedy because I grew up
in London going to the home games of two of the major North London
league teams—Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Both have very strong
Jewish followings, even though they play most of their key games on
Shabbat.
When I went to games as a young man in the fifties,
it cost me 50 cents to stand behind the goal. Today standing is no
longer permitted. While in London I went to see the Arsenal football
club play in the extravagant multimillion pound Emirates Stadium,
money provided by that Gulf nation. I was lucky to purchase a seat
for 130 dollars!
Now the almost unthinkable has happened. Hate has
become a feature of soccer games in England and France.
A new report, "Anti-Semitism in Football—A
Scar on the Beautiful Game," was presented in Jerusalem by
parliament member John Mann, citing more than 30 examples of
anti-Semitism in European stadiums. Mann, who chairs an all party
group investigating the problem, admitted that those polluting the
sport were a small band of far right thugs and extremists. His
report noted, "the oldest hatred, anti-Semitism, continues to
rear its ugly head."
The 16-page report catalogues anti-Semitic incidents
at football games in l8 European countries, noting it is most
rampant in England and Poland.
Racism in soccer is not new. It flourished in the
‘70s, directed mainly at black athletes. Today it is flourishing.
I observed it seems to be worst among some
supporters of what is probably the most glamorous team in England—the
London club Chelsea which is owned by a Jewish billionaire and
managed by an Israeli.
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In the early days, owners of the major British
football teams and indeed most of the players were 99 percent
British. But Chelsea is now owned by the Russian oil billionaire
Roman Abramovich (worth $18.2 billion and number eleven on Forbes’
Richest Men In the World).
Abramovich lives in London. According to a New
York Times story in March he is building the largest private
yacht in the world to add to his collection of personal vessels.
His troubles began six months ago when he fired the
team’s popular Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho and hired Avram
Grant, coach of Israel’s national team, and a legend in his own
country, to take over Abramovich’s international army of grossly
overpaid players.
Chelsea are currently in second place in England’s
major league, and still in the hunt for the prestigious championship
trophy. But after losing a couple of key games (three out of 31
games, a formidable win-lose record by any standards), those defeats
triggered a deluge of anti-Avram hate mail.
Along with a death threat mailed to Grant at the
club’s London headquarters came a package containing white powder.
The powder turned out to be harmless. Grant’s wife Tzofit, a well
known TV personality in Israel, was also threatened.
Because some Chelsea fans do not appreciate Grant’s
team lineups, or his personal style, he has become a visible target
for hate-mongers who are vitriolic in their dislike of him. Israelis
are often criticized—in my opinion quite rightly at times—for
lack of good manners and charm and an arrogant refusal to
accommodate to the mores of the country in which they find
themselves. Grant is no exception.
A friend, a fervent Chelsea fan, says Grant’s lack
of popularity is not because he’s a Jew but because he’s just
not up to the job of running a major league team of the class of
Chelsea.
"They call him the toad," said my friend.
"He never smiles and has no personal charm, unlike the
sophisticated Jose (Mourinho), and is a deliberate bore at press
conferences."
But while that view suggests a lack of charisma
rather than religious bias, the press reports from Chelsea games are
particularly depressing.
The London Jewish Chronicle catalogued some
of the lyrics that these so called fans have been chanting:
One Man Went to Gas….went to gas a
Yiddo.
He’s Only a Poor little Yiddo
Who sits at the back of the shelf.
He goes to the bar for a lager
But only buys one for himself.
Ironically, one of the most successful teams in the
world, Manchester United, headquartered 100 miles north of London,
is owned by Jewish businessman Malcolm Glazer, owner of the Tampa
Bay Buchaneers (who is worth a mere $1.3 billion dollars and is 660th
on Forbes richest list).
He bought the club in 2005 and has handed over the
running of the business to his son Joel. Major shareholders in the
Birmingham City team are Jewish businessmen David and Ralph Gold.
Neither team appears to have had any of the problems of Chelsea.
I spoke to Clive Walters, a Jewish accountant and
former member of the board of one of the London teams, with a
lifelong passion for football. Walters has studied the social as
well as the athletic skills of these young athletes, many of whom
come from humble backgrounds around the world to earn $150,000 a
week playing in Britain.
Despite the most recent report, he disputes the fact
that the sport is becoming anti-Semitic. "The trouble I believe
comes from the same illiterate thug element that has historically
given black players a hard time and are now preoccupied with
anti-Semitic chants. It is not representative at all of the fans as
a whole."
So why are the worst hate rants echoing around the
Chelsea stadium?
"The expectations are high from a Jewish
billionaire and his Jewish manager," says Walters.
"In those thugs’ eyes he sacked (fired) a
popular, largely successful and media efficient manager Mourinhio,
and replaced him with a couple of Jewish men who have little
interest in accommodating to British tastes."
Grant, he admits, is a dour fellow and does not take
too kindly to the British media who began firing daily verbal arrows
at him from the moment he stepped off the plane from Tel Aviv.
Walters, who has followed soccer in Britain for 45
years, declares, "Most of the real fans up and down the country
are decent loyal people, preoccupied only with the fate of their
favorite team."
That may well be. But what appalled me during my
visit is that the anti-Semitism seems to receive very light coverage
in the British media, except in the Jewish press. And while of
course this thuggish behavior is not condoned, it sometimes seems to
be considered par for the course: a deviant offshoot of the
beer-swigging soccer fans who attend the games.
Part of the problem may be that the British public
is barraged in the press by an almost daily deluge of anti-Israel
rhetoric. And some of that may have penetrated into the
predominantly working class sections of the soccer stadium.
In the U.S such outbursts, say for example at a
baseball game, would be headline news, and the 6.1 million Jewish
Americans would be campaigning vigorously for something to be done
about it.
The almost 300,000 British Jews are inclined to stay
quiet, behind the symbolic "gates" of their prosperous
"ghettos," and react only when things become intolerable.
In an interesting twist, Liverpool, another team
with a legendary history, was bought two years ago by two American
businessmen, one of whom is currently deep in negotiations to sell
his share of the club to Dubai International Capital. That certainly
might result in something unique in British soccer history: Jewish
owned teams playing Arab owned teams.
If that happens it will be interesting to see what
effect that has on British soccer hooligans because if there are any
people they despise more than the Jews, it’s the Moslems.
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