Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

British Soccer Fans Could Face Criminal Charges For Using ‘Yid’ As Insult

The governing body of English soccer announced that fans could face criminal charges for using the term “yid.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, the English Football Association’s general secretary, Alex Horne, wrote that the association believes the term “is likely to be considered offensive by the reasonable observer and considers the term to be inappropriate in a football setting.”

The statement also said that “use of the term in a public setting could amount to a criminal offense, and leave those fans liable to prosecution and potentially a lengthy football banning order.”

The London’s Tottenham Hotspur Premier League team has many Jewish supporters who sometimes call themselves the “Yid army.” However the term is often used by other soccer teams to describe Spurs fans in a derogatory way.

Jonathan Arkush, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, praised the Football Association’s decision. “We support the FA’s stance in defining the ‘Y’- word as an offensive term and we hope that once and for all its use will die out.” He said that the association “should be applauded for seeking to take steps that will undoubtedly reduce anti- Semitism at our football grounds.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.