Chelsea stewards to Ò\ht ?ew"hate
CHELSEA WILL take its own team of stewards to its away match against Tottenham Hotspur next week, instructing them to eject antisemitic fans after a recent spate of anti-Jewish chanting from their supporters.
Chants including the epithet “Yid” were heard in Chelsea’s two most recent games, against Crystal Palace and Watford, despite the club issuing two separate statements earlier in December condemning antisemitic behaviour.
The West London club is facing a potential partial stadium closure as Uefa conducts an investigation into the conduct of fans during a Europa League game against Vidi in Budapest last month.
Club officials have liaised with their Tottenham counterparts ahead of their Carabao Cup semi-final match at Wembley on Tuesday January 8, the Times reports, and have decided to bring their own stewards.
Contrary to media reports, representatives from each club’s supporters’ trusts had not met as of Wednesday evening. A conference call — also including officers from the Metropolitan Police and the British Transport Police (BTP) — was scheduled for Thursday evening.
Katrina Law, the co-chair of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST), told the JC that taking stewards to away games was not uncommon among Premier League clubs — although Chelsea have tended not to.
She said: “What happens ahead of any London derby is we would sit down with opposing fan representatives, the Met Police, BTP and club representatives, and we go through everything you would expect in a planning meeting.
“This would be plans for getting fans in and out of the stadium; pre-match and post-match; the layout of the concourse, et cetera.
“Tottenham take stewards to every away match we play – it’s just best practice. “From the THST point of view, if Chelsea want to crack on and deal with their own fans, it’s a good thing.” Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, who is Jewish, gave his approval to the open letter published last month by Bruce Buck, in which the Chelsea chairman condemned the “deeply unpleasant but vocal minority which refuses to join us in the 21st century”.
Tottenham fans typically selfidentify as “Yids” or the “Yid Army”.