Judaism In Association Football

In Europe before World War Two, "Jews played a prominent part in European football as players, coaches, administrators and patrons, not to mention supporters".

 

England

In England, Jewish businessmen helped form the Premier League in 1992.

Tottenham Hotspur has a large proportion of Jewish supporters. Their supporters refer to themselves as "Yids", seen as a derogatory term for Jews. The Metropolitan Police have said they will arrest anyone who uses the term Yid. Their previous three chairmen were Jewish. Leyton Orient (originally Clapton Orient) had Jewish players before the Second World War and continued to field Jewish players regularly up until the 80s, with their time in English top flight in the 60s being funded by two Jewish businessmen.

In September 2010, West Ham United manager, Avram Grant and defender Tal Ben Haim were given permission to be absent from a game against Stoke City so they could celebrate the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur.

In 2011 Rabbi Alex Goldberg was appointed as chairperson for the Football Association's Faith in Football group and attended an anti-discrimination in football summit hosted by the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in February 2012. In 2019, he initiated a project that saw the building of a Sukkah in Wembley Stadium, the home of English football. In October 2023, Goldberg resigned from the Faith in Football group following the decision not to light the arch at Wembley Stadium, before upcoming England matches, in blue and white, the colours of the Israeli flag following the Hamas attack on Israel.

In January 2020, Chelsea unveiled a mural by Solomon Souza on an outside wall of the West Stand at their Stamford Bridge stadium. The mural was part of Chelsea's 'Say No to Antisemitism' campaign funded by Jewish club owner Roman Abramovich. Included on the mural were depictions of footballers Julius Hirsch and Árpád Weisz, who were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp, and Ron Jones, a British prisoner of war known as the 'Goalkeeper of Auschwitz'. In 2023, Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, led a commemorative service for Hirsch at Stamford Bridge before a Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund. He delivered a prayer of remembrance and lit a yahrzeit candle, marking 80 years since Hirsch was murdered at Auschwitz.

In January 2021, Premier League clubs commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day remembering the six million Jewish men, women and children killed between 1941 and 1945 by the Nazis and their collaborators in The Holocaust.

Scotland

In Scotland, Third Lanark was predominantly supported by Jewish supporters due to being in a mostly-Jewish area of Glasgow. When Third Lanark dissolved in the 1960s, some Jewish supporters started to follow Celtic due to contemporary successes. In modern times, many Jewish football fans in the city supported Rangers due to gaining support while at Protestant schools which were more open to Jewish students than Catholic schools. Rangers fans also fly the flag of Israel at matches in response to their Old Firm rivals Celtic using the flag of Palestine. This was despite the Jewish Representative Council of Glasgow asking fans to stop due to the mix of politics and football making some feel uncomfortable.

Netherlands

AFC Ajax of Amsterdam, like Tottenham Hotspur, has a long history of Jewish support and involvement despite not being an officially Jewish club. The club's former De Meer Stadion was located in the largely Jewish east side of the city. Three club presidents since World War II have been Jewish. Since 1976, some Ajax fans, largely non-Jewish, have dubbed themselves "Super Jews" in response to antisemitic chanting by rivals such as Feyenoord.

The Mandatory Palestine national football team was founded as team representing Mandatory Palestine but only fielded Jewish players and played the Jewish song "Hatikvah" alongside "God Save the King" during their FIFA World Cup qualifiers. In 1948, the governing body changed their name to the Israel Football Association following the establishment of Israel.

Modern Jewish footballers have said they want to inspire others. Jewish footballers playing in foreign countries have been allowed to avoid playing on the High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, or remain a substitute until the observance has finished.