Chelsea to make racist fans visit Auschwitz

CHELSEA Football Club plans to send supporters guilty of racist and anti-Semitic behaviour on a visit to Auschwitz rather than banning them from matches.

Instead of losing their season tickets, the club will offer errant fans the chance of an educational trip to the concentration camp museum in Poland.

The West London Premier League club’s Jewish owner Roman Abramovich, who recently took Israeli citizenship after delays in renewing his UK visa, is behind the initiative.

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said yesterday: ‘This policy gives them the chance to realise what they have done.’

In 2015, four fans were convicted of racist violence after a black man was prevented from boarding a Paris metro train before a Chelsea game in the city amid chants of: ‘We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it.’

In games against Tottenham Hotspur, which has traditionally had a large Jewish following, some Chelsea fans have been heard ‘hissing’ to mimic the Nazi gas chambers.

A spokesman for Tottenham Hotspur FC said yesterday: ‘We are supportive of any initiative which seeks to eradicate racism from football.’