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Jewish PR chief mistaken for footballer in Fifa presidential election row

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A prominent Jewish public relations director has been falsely accused of being an Israeli footballer as part of an apparent slur.

Bahrain football media officer Mohammed Al Mudaweb posted a series of tweets claiming PR Office founder Shimon Cohen - who is from Wales - was born in Tel Aviv and played football for Israel in the 1960s.

Mr Al Mudaweb appeared to have confused the Welsh spin guru with another Shimon Cohen, who was born in Tel Aviv and played nine times for Israel from 1962 to 1966, scoring one goal.

Mr Cohen’s PR Office is representing Jordan’s Prince Ali during his candidacy in the upcoming Fifa presidential election, for which former Bahrain Football Association president Sheikh Salman is the current frontrunner.

As part of his claim, Mr Al Mudaweb, posted a screenshot of a JC story about Mr Cohen being appointed to assist Prince Ali .

Reacting to the posts, Mr Cohen said: “This is a disgraceful racist attack by Salman's FA, implying that just because I am a Jew, there is an Israeli plot afoot.”

He observed that “a simple Google search would have shown that I am a Welsh PR guy, and not a retired Israeli footballer”.

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