Marca, a Madrid based daily newspaper focused on sports, is under heavy fire today for a report that inaccurately described London club Tottenham Hotspur.
Marca, in previewing tomorrow’s UEFA Champions League group stage clash between Tottenham and Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, wrote that Spurs were “hated” by supporters of rival clubs and that: “Their Jewish origin has made them into a club disliked by rival fans…but in their 135 years of existence they have always had style and great players.”
Marca have since apologized for the article, bylined by Senior Reporter Enrique Ortega, publishing a long statement that included the following:
That ‘hatred’ that Tottenham suffers is very focused on the radical and racist groups that are hiding in the social mass, especially Chelsea and West Ham . Obviously, these groups do not represent much less the English hobby or society .
I regret the confusion that has been created in this respect. The intention was not to damage the image of Tottenham, a club that we respect, value and admire – without going further, one of its players is today the protagonist of our front page – and we do not want to serve as a speaker to these racist minorities , football, and who use any pretext to expand their hate messages, which we reject head-on.
Tottenham actually have no Jewish origins, so the Marca report was inaccurate on that front, but it is true that the club has frequently been targeted by anti-Semitic chants.
Earlier this season, Chelsea had to ask their supporters to cease a chant praising Alvaro Morata, which included an anti-Semitic chant directed at Tottenham. Morata himself even asked the supporters to desist with the offensive song. Arsenal supporters have also recently come under fire for directing anti-Semitic vitriol at Spurs.
Marca is Spain’s largest daily, with a circulation of 2.5 million.
The Tottenham statement reads:
“We are astonished that a publication such as Marca, which presents itself as an alleged source of professional journalism, has seen fit to publish such an article which is blatantly wrong and wholly distasteful.”
The Jewish Chronicle writes that: “A proportion of Spurs’ support has long been drawn from the London Jewish community and the three chairmen since 1982 have all been Jewish businessmen with pre-existing degrees of allegiance to the club. Yet the proportion of fans who are Jewish, impossible to know precisely, is likely to be small.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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