Spanish Newspaper Says London Soccer Club Hated Over ‘Jewish Origin’
(JTA) — British soccer clubs have condemned an article in a Spanish daily newspaper that reported the “Jewish origin” of Tottenham Hotspur has caused the team to be hated by rival clubs’ fans.
The Madrid-based daily sports newspaper Marca published the article on Monday ahead of a match between the Spurs and Real Madrid as part of the Champions League play.
“Their Jewish origin has made them into a club hated by rival fans. But in their 135 years of existence they have always had style and great players,” the article said, in part.
In a clarification issued after publication, senior reporter Enrique Ortega wrote: “That ‘hatred’ that Tottenham suffers is very focused on the radical and racist groups that are hiding in the social mass, especially Chelsea and West Ham.”
The Tottenham team said in a statement: “We are astonished that a publication such as Marca, which presents itself as an alleged source of professional journalism, has seen fit to publish such an article which is blatantly wrong and wholly distasteful.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
