Dozens of activists occupied the reception of the UEFA European soccer association in Nyon, Switzerland, to protest Israel’s hosting of a championship. About 40 protesters carrying banners and placards, some critical of UEFA President Michel Platini, chanted slogans at the offices on Jan. 25, according to the Associated Press. The protesters had come to demonstrate…
Hungary’s national soccer team will face sanctions because of anti-Semitic chants by its fans in August, the FIFA soccer association has announced. The punishment handed out by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s disciplinary committee on Jan. 8 included a $43,000 fine to be paid by the Hungarian MLSZ national team. It will also have…
European soccer authorities have opened disciplinary proceedings against the Rome soccer team Lazio for the alleged anti-Semitism of its fans. The action follows alleged racist chanting and other racist and anti-Semitic behavior on the part of hardcore fans at a match with London’s Tottenham Hotspur team in Rome in November. Tottenham has many Jewish supporters…
The Drunken Ship pub in Rome was host to 30 Tottenham Hotspur fans, in town to watch their soccer team’s Europa League encounter with S.S. Lazio last Wednesday night. At approximately 1 a.m. Thursday, Lazio so-called ultras —extremist hooligan fans — turned up at the bar armed with stones, metal bars, and knuckle dusters and…
Fans of London’s Tottenham Hotspur soccer team have long referred to their club as the “Yid Army”, seizing and transforming a nasty pejorative into a peculiar badge of honour, as a way of pushing back against their abusers and detractors. Not the first time, however, this modern tradition is being called into question, with London’s…
London’s Tottenham Hotspur soccer team defended fans who call themselves “Yids,” saying they adopted the term as a defense against anti-Semitic taunting. The Society of Black Lawyers this week threatened to file a complaint with the Metropolitan police by Nov. 20 unless Tottenham Hotspur and the Football Association make greater efforts to end what they…
The director of a soccer team from the Dutch city of Utrecht has vowed to punish fans who sang anti-Semitic chants during a recent match. “Racism will not be tolerated in the stadium,” Wilco van Schaik, general director of FC Utrecht, told the Dutch news agency ANP. The report did not specify what steps would…
Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe’s Darkest Hour By Simon Kuper Nation Books, 257 pages, $15.99 Bill Shankly, the legendary soccer coach of the British club Liverpool FC, is often quoted as saying, “Football is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that.” The attribution…
