Hey look another "Something awful happened at Beitar Jerusalem" story



Photo Credit: Flash90



I know I post a lot of stories about racism on here, but seeing as I'm a bleeding heart liberal (or as my father calls me, Communist) I feel that these ignorant acts need to be highlighted and those responsible publicly shamed.

This isn't the first time I've written about Beitar Jerusalem, and their infamous La Familia supporters group, on here. For those not familiar with Beitar, La Familia, and the generally racist attitude of a large portion of their fan base please go check out the E:60 piece that ESPN put together. It's eye opening to say the least.

As you saw in an earlier post from me that there has been an uproar among the Beitar hard liners over the clubs intentions to sign two Chechen (read: Muslim) players. Well today comes the news that the clubs front office was firebombed by some of it's own fans. (editors note: WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!)

Via Associated Press-

JERUSALEM -- The offices of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team were set on fire early Friday in an apparent arson attack, police said, a day after four of the club's fans were charged with anti-Muslim chanting at a recent game.

The attack also followed an announcement by police that they would begin deploying undercover units and beefing up police presence at games to track down those fans involved in racist chants.

Full story here.



A fireman standing in the smoke and fire damaged
Beitar front office. Credit



I've resolved myself to the fact that, as a sports fan from America, I will never be able to fully understand caring so much about a team/hating another race of people so much that I would set my favorite teams front office ON FIRE!!!!! I'm not stupid enough to say that racism and idiocy don't exist in American sports (I'm looking at you Philadelphia...), however the fervor and complete lack of any common sense that seems to run rampant through a small portion of fans of the game of soccer overseas, doesn't come anywhere close to anything we have here in the States.

Yes, there have been many instances of American fans from opposing teams having violent confrontations having sometimes fatal results. However, things like the complete segregation of opposing fan bases in stadiums and dozens of police lining the aisles to keep people apart is something that the common American fan can't imagine and I for one hope they never will.

Jay N

@SoccerNutBlog
@FCJayBird