Spurs experience strikes a chord across Europe

Lyons fans, some with scarves bearing the name of the Bad Gones, the ultra group, make themselves heard at White Hart Lane. Rory Smith Commentary Published at 12:01AM, February 22 2013 In North London, in Amsterdam, in Budapest, the taunts, the chants, the sound effects are the same: the hissing noises, the Nazi salutes, the jaunty, upbeat melodies of songs about gas chambers and death camps, and Auschwitz. Tottenham Hotspurs supporters would be forgiven for thinking twice, now, about following their team in Europe. Two away legs in their Europa League campaign have been marred by anti-Semitic violence, their presence first in Rome and then in Lyons an excuse for those cities far-right groups to take to the streets, hurling missiles, drawing blood, delighting in this new target for their hatred. That would be a shame, of course. There are countless destinations on the Continent where Spurs supporters can travel in safety, as so many other clubs do. Lazio was always likely to be a flashpoint elements of the supporter base of Lazio and Roma have far-right links.

Lyons do not have the same reputation, but they are based in a city where neo-Nazi activity, both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic, is on the rise. There is a growing fear that the area is turning into facholand fascist country and the club does have one ultra group, the Bad Gones, who use SS slogans on their scarves. The draw, in that sense, was unfortunate for Spurs. But it would be misleading to suggest that these are isolated cases, that Tottenham just happened to pick the two places in all of Europe where the far right poses a problem. The experiences of Ajax and MTK Hungaria prove as much. A substantial portion of the abuse hurled by the 50 masked youths who attacked The Smoking Dog pub in Lyons old town late on Wednesday night would be familiar to the supporters of Europes two great Jewish clubs. Just like Spurs, the majority of Ajaxs support are not Jewish. Just like Spurs, their association with Judaism comes not from their founding, but from their adoption of a Jewish identity later in their existence. The clubs old De Meer ground was based in Amsterdams Jewish quarter and so their rivals would often dismiss them as Jews. Ajaxs fans reclaimed the word, took it as their own. They were helped by Johan Cruyff, whose own use of Yiddish and his fondness for kosher salami gave Judaism the Total Football generations seal of approval. Cruyffs influence was such a success that the Star of David is a regular feature in the stands at Ajax games and Hava Nagila, the Jewish folk song, used to be available to download as a ringtone on the clubs website. Just like Spurs, Ajaxs use of Judaism makes them a target. In recent years, a trainload of Utrecht fans were refused entry to Amsterdam for singing racist songs, Lee Immers, then a Den Haag player, was banned for four games for joining in a chant with his clubs fans about hunting the Jews, and allegations have been made about Feyenoord supporters chanting Jews to the gas during the Netherlands most visceral, most fiercely contested derby. Just like Spurs, Ajax have come under pressure to convince their fans to place less emphasis on their assumed Jewish identity. There is a feeling among the Netherlands Jewish community that their use of the faith as a badge of honour could actually increase anti-Semitism in the country. Just like Spurs, there are others who argue that the solution is to teach people not to be anti-Semitic, rather than to deprive them of encounters with Judaism, in whatever form. Much the same happens in Hungary, where supporters of MTK are regularly abused, most notably by fans of Ferencvaros, but anecdotal evidence suggests that Palestinian flags are a feature of every MTK league game. So too are songs about gas. Unlike Spurs and Ajax, MTK are a Jewish club: they were founded, in 1888, by members of Budapests Jewish bourgeoisie, one of a handful of such groups that sprang up in Central Europe around the turn of the previous century.

Their influence on the game is extraordinary: Hakoah Vienna, the Austrian Jewish club, gave football Hugo Meisl, one of the most influential coaches of all time. MTK provided two Bla Guttmann and Dori Krschner, the grandfathers of Brazilian football and managed to inspire Kurt Landauer, the Jewish president of Bayern Munich, to turn his club into a beacon of cosmopolitanism in 1920s Germany. Jews have long played a crucial role in football. They still do: the European champions are owned by a Jewish businessman; most other clubs have had a Jewish player, or coach, or executive at some time. And it is this that hints that the problems faced by Spurs, Ajax and MTK are not born of football. These are clubs attacked because they are associated, historically, with Jewishness; that faith is part of their identity, so their arrival at a ground or in a city acts as a trigger to anyone football fan or not who is anti-Semitic. The problem is not with the game, but with elements of society.