A British soccer league has launched a campaign to urge fans to stop using anti-Jewish chants.
Premier League teams are scheduled to screen the film “The Y-Word” before a match April 30, according to reports, as part of the “Kick It Out” anti-racism campaign to stop such chanting at soccer games. “Y” refers to Yid, a slang term for a Jew.
Popular players Frank Lampard and Ledley King are featured in the one-minute film, which shows archival footage of fans at train stations and on terraces chanting anti-Jewish and Nazi slogans such as “Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz, Sieg Heil. Hitler’s going to gas them again. Yiddo.’’
The fans of three teams — Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham United — have been singled out as being the worst offenders, according to Sky News. Some fans make hissing sounds to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers, and some Tottenham Hotspurs fans call themselves the “Yid army.” — jta