Anti-Semitism in football has long since reached worrying proportions. Since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s massive reaction to it, anti-Semitic incidents have repeatedly occurred at and around football games. According to the president of the Jewish sports association TuS Makkabi Germany, national and international associations have not yet recognized the problems or are reacting too hesitantly.
“First and foremost, you have to recognize that the situation is really serious, and I don’t think this switch has existed yet,” said Alon Meyer to the German Press Agency. Incidents such as the hunt for Jewish fans in Amsterdam, attacks on TuS Makkabi youth players in Berlin or the fear of Israel’s international matches on European soil should also shake up the associations.
Football “Bringing Glass of Society”
For Meyer, the anti-Semitic attacks are not just a problem limited to football, but are an expression of a development across society. Football is a “magnifying glass of society,” which is why “we have to bring about lasting changes, otherwise it will blow up in our faces,” said the 50-year-old. Meyer points to the anti-Israel banner that was displayed at the Champions League game in Paris on November 6th. There was no reaction from the European Football Association.
“You shouldn’t be surprised if something like this reaches 14, 15, 16-year-old children,” says Meyer, referring to the attacks at a youth game in Berlin-Neukölln a day later. “I hope that people have recognized the signs of the times that we really need to take a serious, sustained approach to the problem in sport.”
Clear rules – clear consequences
Meyer heads the approximately 40 Makkabi local associations throughout Germany. For him, the commemoration of the German Football League (DFL) and the German Football Association (DFB) on November 9th (Pogrom Night 1938) or January 27th (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is not enough. He calls for a clear approach.
Sport is “a very simple tool to reduce prejudices and build bridges and to sensitize people,” says Meyer. “That means we pick up the players and explain to the players what social responsibility we have here in Germany, what rules we have, and that we have a democratic system of values,” which also includes our solidarity with the State of Israel. “And if someone doesn’t stick to it, then they have to live with the corresponding consequences.”
Hans-Joachim Watzke, who was honored on Wednesday in Berlin with the Leo Baeck Prize, the highest award from the Central Council of Jews in Germany for his commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism, also calls for a clear stance that he takes as managing director of Borussia Dortmund implemented: “Everyone at Borussia Dortmund knows that anyone who takes an anti-Semitic stance is out of our league. That should be said more often and more clearly.”
BVB is doing a lot to prevent anti-Semitic tendencies from arising in the club. “We do educational work, we go to Yad Vashem, we go to Auschwitz,” said Watzke. Just on Tuesday there was a lecture in the “Borusseum” about current anti-Semitism.
In his functions as DFL supervisory board chairman and DFB vice president, Watzke wants to ensure that the “Together 1” prevention project set up by Makkabi Germany is also more closely integrated into the DFB.
He himself gave half of the Leo Baeck Prize, worth 10,000 euros, to the project, which makes Meyer happy. The project, which is also used in the youth training centers from the first to the fourth league, has had a lasting impact and has significantly reduced anti-Semitic attacks.
Sisyphean work in the professional sector
However, the professional sector is still closed to the project. The campaign can become a Sisyphean task if a professional torpedoes the work with young people with an anti-Israel post.
Even in such a scenario, Meyer calls for clear rules that must be integrated into the professionals’ employment contracts: “And if they are not adhered to, the player must also expect the corresponding consequences, such as termination without notice. And then an athlete like that thinks twice about posting something.”
