British Soccer Fans Hit by Anti-Semitic France Attack

By JTA February 21, 2013

Fans of the British soccer team the Tottenham Spurs were targeted by an apparent anti-Semitic attack at a pub in Lyon, France.

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Some 50 attackers entered the Smoking Dog on Wednesday night making a Nazi salute before smashing doors and throwing chairs and other objects.

There were about 150 Spurs fans in the pub, which is popular with British expatriates in France, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. Three Spurs fans were injured.

The Spurs traditionally have had a large Jewish support base in London, which is sometimes referred to as the “Yid Army.”

A Lyon newspaper described the attackers as skinheads, according to the Guardian.

Tottenham was scheduled to play Olympique Lyonnais in a Europa League game on Thursday.

In November, some 50 assailants wielding cobblestones, metal bars and knives attacked British Spurs’ fans and trashed a pub in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori square. One British fan was stabbed in the incident.

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