MAKE YOUR MIND UP, SPURS FANS

SO WHAT is it? Are Tottenham fans, and through them the club, taking ownership of their Jewish heritage, Y-word and all — or are they offended at its very mention? It seems fair to ask after the fuss in Madrid this week when the newspaper Marca stated that Tottenham were hated by fans of other clubs because of their Jewish roots. ‘Blatantly wrong and wholly distasteful,’ read a Tottenham statement. The club said it was astonished by the article. Why? That Tottenham are hated because of a traditional Jewish following is exactly the argument advanced by those, particularly gentiles, who delight in singing Yid Army at matches, despite the fact many find it offensive. They do it to stand square with their Jewish brothers, and any Jewish ancestors who followed the club. They are reclaiming the word, removing its claws, its power to offend. And they do it because Tottenham fans were hated for being Jewish, just as Marca said. So you can’t have it all ways. Maybe, instead of being outraged, it would help if the club owners got off the fence. There do seem to be mixed messages. Yid Army doesn’t just get sung at games involving Chelsea or West Ham where anti-Semitism, if not rife, is certainly present. It is sung everywhere. It was sung in the Bernabeu, and previously against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, in circumstances where the opposition supporters would have no clue of its origin, and were certainly not being provocative. It was shouted by one chap in the Iberia lounge at Adolfo Suarez Barajas airport on Wednesday morning — presumably to reclaim it from the bemused Spanish businessmen who were minding their own business reading El Pais. And it will be sung against Liverpool on Sunday, too — and those who do it will hide behind the justification that to shout ‘Yid’ at the top of one’s voice shows some form of kinship with persecuted Jews. But mention genuine antiSemitism as a motivating factor and Tottenham as a club are offended. Gentlemen, it’s time to make your minds up.