Five days after 1,200 Jews were killed in possibly the worst terrorist atrocity perpetrated in the West since the Holocaust, there has still not been a single word from the world of football. Not from the authorities, not from the clubs, not from the players, not from the broadcasters and not from the pundits - many of whom have previously gone to great lengths to defend the right to use their platforms to promote causes they care about.
The reports have suggested that the football authorities are assessing how to respond to this ‘complicated’ or ‘complex’ situation. Seemingly tying themselves in knots trying to work out which sponsor or broadcast partner they might offend by marking this atrocity.
It is not complicated. It is not complex. The murder, rape, abduction, and decapitation of innocent men, women and children needs no context. It is not necessary, at this moment, to find a balance or another side.
By failing to even acknowledge what has occurred, the football world has demonstrated one thing loud and clear. That Jewish and Israeli lives and deaths are not equal to those of others.
That Jewish fans and the people of Israel are not part of this so-called family.
In the grand scheme of things, a minute silence before a football match or a stadium washed in blue and white is irrelevant. Whatever happens now and whatever politically sensitive solution is achieved in football’s corridors of power, Jewish and Israeli football fans know that when it really mattered, we were not supported.
