Leading Jewish Group Protests Rampant Antisemitism Among Supporters of Rotterdam Soccer Team
Soccer – Champions League – Feyenoord vs Napoli – De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands – December 6, 2017 Napoli’s Elseid Hysaj in action with Feyenoord’s Sven van Beek. Photo: REUTERS/Michael Kooren.
A major Jewish group has sent a letter of protest to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) President, Aleksander Čeferin, after soccer fans in the Netherlands committed an antisemitic assault.
On May 5, a Jewish man was attacked by men wearing shirts with the logo of the Feyenoord Rotterdam soccer team, after he asked them to stop singing a song with the lyrics, “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews because Jews burn the best.”
Feyenoord has a longstanding rivalry with Ajax Amsterdam, which had many Jewish fans before the Holocaust. Feyenoord chants are often antisemitic due to Ajax’s identification with Jews.
In the letter to the UEFA president, Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, deplored “the constant recidivism of the antisemitic behavior of Feyenoord Rotterdam football Club of the Netherlands.”
The Center asked UEFA “to take the strongest disciplinary measures as, apparently, the Dutch Football Association is unable to control Feyenoord’s reputation sinking further, as their fans continue the hatefest.”