Beitar Jerusalem is famous for never signing a Muslim player into their ranks. In fact they are the only club in the Israeli Premier League never to do so. The team's largest supporters group, known as La Familia, has wielded it's power and protested (sometimes violently) any move to sign any Muslim player to the team. When the team attempted to sign Nigerian, and Muslim, Ibrahim Nadalla in 2005 the fans mobbed the player and forced him to leave the team.
The team is so notorious that ESPN E:60 did a piece on the team that you can view here.
Now comes the announcement that the team will sign two Chechen players to deals. Can anyone guess how that went?
Via Associated Press-JERUSALEM -- Israeli police have arrested three soccer fans for chanting anti-Muslim slogans at a game while protesting the Beitar Jerusalem team's intention to sign two Muslim players.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says two suspects were fined and banned from the stadium for the rest of the season. The additional suspect was scheduled to appear in court Sunday.
Fans unfurled signs alluding to the team's unofficial tradition of not signing Arab or Muslim players. Beitar fans have been punished in the past for similar behavior.
Parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin, himself a Beitar fan, told Army Radio the slogans were akin to a team in Germany banning Jewish players. He spoke on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Team owner Arkady Gaydamak told Army Radio he was determined to sign two Chechen players.
Photo by Nir Neidar
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