Premier League Nonsense

Both North London teams, Arsenal and Tottenham, have historically had large Jewish followings. Back in the late 60s and early 70s I remember Arsenal programmes used to carry a Jewish new year message.

At some stage though it was Tottenham who took on the mantle as the jewish club. Possibly because of board members, possibly because they were one of the first teams to take commercialization seriously, I forget now. Whenever we, I’m Arsenal, played them they would be taunted with ‘Yid’ chants.

There were also chants that referred in graphic terms to the holocaust and to be fair to the Arsenal support many back then found these distasteful. Even those among our hooligan following took offense to them. We have always prided ourselves at the Arsenal on the fact that we lacked any real racist presence in our support. Yep, they tried as they tried at most clubs back then but they never made inroads.

http://jakartacasual.blogspot.com/2007/10/denton-edelman-and-wagon-wheels.html

Of course it wasn’t just Arsenal fans using the Y word on the terraces. At the time Tottenham were the media’s favourite team, they could do no wrong but on the terraces they were perhaps the most hated team in the land.

Later their support started to get smart and turn things around. The Star of David appearing on the terraces at White Hart Lane and the hooligan element started calling themselves the Yid Army, a word now used to describe all Tottenham fans much in the same way that Gooner at Arsenal has crossed over from thug use to encompass all Arsenal fans.

Racism often comes from ignorance. it comes from a feeling of inferiority, inadequacy.

The Y word, referring to Tottenham as a football club is neither. I’ve seen Jews in the Arsenal support spit the word out in pure hatred to them lot. The word had, in the minds of many on the terraces back then at least, become dissociated from any religious meaning and has come to define an enemy on and off the field. It was a synonym for Tottenham.

I recall one day at Highbury a swastika was put up near the away end in the expensive seats at a Tottenham game. The reaction from those around me was not the reaction of natural born racists and when it was finally removed they were plenty of cheers. During the game the Y word was used vehemently.

No one I knew who used the Y word ever thought the Jews were untermenschen. No-one I knew ever attacked synagogues or daubed extremist graffiti on Jewish tombstones because Tottenham were known as Yids and because they beat us.

It is telling that when it was announced a campaign would be launched against the use of the Y word an official at Tottenham asked that nothing be done there for a while.

# posted by Me @ 12:05 AM