Scottish Soccer Club Accidentally Used Nazi Image on Program
Here in North America, sports franchises use the most obvious cover art for their game day programs. New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter fist-pumping after a playoff victory. Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson doused in champagne.
Surely things are the same over in the UK, but last week Scottish soccer club Airdire United attempted something a little more historical with its program in honor of Remembrance Day. The commemoration backfired. Airdire officials thought last Saturday’s program portrayed jubilant Australian troops returning by train from a World War Two battlefield. Instead, the photo features German soldiers – ahem, Nazis.
Superimposed over the photo were the words “Lest We Forget” and “Supporting Our Heroes.”
According to an Australian newspaper, club officials claim PoppyScotland, a war veterans charity and remembrance project, supplied the photo. The organization says otherwise.
In any event, Airdire chairman Jim Ballantyne apologized: “We always have a minute of silence and we also played in special strips bearing the poppy, all of which makes the programme gaffe very embarrassing.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
