In a career spanning two-thirds of a century, I can say I have never encountered antisemitism. From an accountancy career to sitting on boards and chairing a dozen sizeable organisations, including the British Red Cross, Manchester City FC, Wembley National Stadium and the Football Association, I have been spared anti-Jewish discrimination and prejudice. If anything, my experience has been the opposite – the relationship I had with the City fanbase was, for a club chairman, terrifically warm and positive.
In 2026, that fact seems almost unbelievable, and it pains me deeply that were I starting my career again today the high likelihood is that my experience would differ greatly.
Football has a proud record of taking a lead over wider society in dealing with racism and discrimination. Many of the awful manifestations of racism have been driven out of the game. Having given much of my life to football, this mission has been something I’ve taken great pride in.
When I was chairing the FA, I was asked by the prime minister to lead all of football in producing a landmark report on discrimination in English football. Our 100 recommendations have been largely implemented. However, we did not deal sufficiently with antisemitism and the Islamist threat.
And so football is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The antisemitic rot in our society is creeping into the beautiful game, with its modern-day adherents set on exploiting the sport for their own despicable ends. After decades of progress, the situation has deteriorated within a matter of years.
The abuse of our national game by obsessive activists was laid bare in the recent banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a European match at Villa Park. West Midlands Police’s shambolic performance was a disgrace as it included fabrication of evidence and misleading of parliament. A major British police force was found to have kow-towed to unabashed antisemitic Islamists in Birmingham – a chilling message for the UK’s beleaguered Jewish community.
This was, however, far from an isolated incident. Within weeks, Uefa’s recent Euro 2028 launch event in central London was hijacked by the same anti-Israel fanatics. The message was clear, campaigners will exploit every opportunity to impose their intolerant ideology. A dangerous precedent and blueprint had been established in Birmingham that football could be weaponised for their own ends. I fear what could happen should Israel qualify for Euro 2028.
Separately, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s ill-advised allegations of “genocide” against Israel may generate the adoration and social media clicks of activists, but most football fans want nothing to do with it. Manchester’s Jewish Representative Council was right to call Pep out for his posturing, especially in light of his failure to express solidarity with the local Jewish community in the devastating aftermath of the Heaton Park synagogue terror attack.
Meanwhile, at the grassroots level – the conveyor belt for this country’s future sports stars and public figures – anti-Jewish posturing has become commonplace, sometimes dangerously so. I am sure many readers of the Jewish Chronicle will have watched their children playing on a Sunday morning with trepidation.
Football may historically have a proud story to tell in tackling racism, but at the end of the day it does still reflect society. And when the prevailing culture is one of apathy or outright hostility towards Jews there is only so much the existing guardrails can do.
All in all, it is a disturbing picture but frankly dwarfed by what is developing in wider society.
The court ruling regarding Palestine Action’s proscription last week reflects an increasingly left-leaning, activist judicial system ruling in favour of a violent, law-breaking, intimidating organisation. The irony is that many Arab countries – historically Israel’s enemies – would keep this organisation outside the pale but not the UK where their fellow travellers still regularly march causing disruption and wasting valuable police time.
Some nihilistic members of the Green Party are advocating that Zionism be designated a form of racism and that Israel should not exist “from the river to the sea”. These fascist views would be a joke if the Greens were not betting favourites to win the upcoming by-election in Manchester, and this already follows the entry of self-declared “pro-Gaza” candidates into parliament at the last election.
I recently had the misfortune to turn on my car radio and tune in to BBC Radio 4’s Any Answers? from the Extremist Republic of Scotland. The topic was, of course, Gaza, and all too predictably every mention of Israel was preceded by the adjective “genocidal”. This linkage is racist nonsense but so frequent is its usage that many must have been brainwashed in believing the libel. Why are Russia, China, Iran, Sudan and many others not so branded? How cruel to appropriate and distort a word that was coined to describe the plight of the Jewish people in the last century. It is nothing more than a cynical propaganda technique to dehumanise those they wish to destroy. Herr Goebbels would be proud.
The antisemitic saplings that have been planted in recent years are growing rapidly in our green and pleasant land. What does our government do? It sometimes talks the talk, and the prime minister is adept at lighting Chanukah candles. But he seems afraid of the left-wing of his party and of standing up to Islamism with the likely consequence of losing some sectarian votes.
As a result, the Jewish community feels the tide is going out and we will be left ever more vulnerable and unprotected. I care about football deeply, but I fear that will be the least of our worries.
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