The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “dismayed” by reports of antisemitic chanting by West Ham fans.
It said in a statement:
The Board of Deputies of British Jews utterly condemns and is dismayed by reports of antisemitic chanting by West Ham United fans at yesterday’s match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Antisemitism has no place in football or society in general. For football fans to use Holocaust imagery and chants glorifying Adolf Hitler is grossly offensive to the Jewish community and is a stain upon the character of British football.
This in the same week that Tottenham fans were attacked in Rome in an apparently antisemitic attack.
Events at White Hart Lane yesterday and comments on Saturday by the Scunthorpe United manager describing his team’s defending as being “as bad as the Holocaust” confirm that this phenomenon is not confined to the Continent.
The board said they would be making a complaint to the FA:
We will be writing to the Football Association to urge them to punish those responsible for these chants and to take further steps to rid our national game of these slurs.
