Maybe you are right, but to me, all of the previous media has been completely UK centric. If you look at both of those articles, they would have been lucky to have been given a single column inch outside of the UK.
I agree. But I believe that the Baddiel stuff
and the SBL stuff has been UK-centric. Since you talk about attention being generated abroad, I can say that, having lived abroad, I've never heard of Spurs' being considered a Jewish club among basically anyone, which is also why no one imagines that I'm Jewish because I follow Spurs. In fact, considering how unconsciously… anti-Semitic isn't quite right, but it's not wrong… where I currently live can be, I'm often asked if I'm Jewish ("not that there's anything wrong with that!" they quickly add), but it's usually because my name is so weird by Lithuanian standards and because I used to sport a beard that would make an entire shtetl jealous.
Mostly I'd say that no one has heard about the Jewish club business since no one has heard of Spurs. Even in France, where everyone is a nominal Woolwich fan, the most involved conversations I ever had about Spurs were about how good Bale is. I suppose with Lloris the profile has gone up a bit, but I don't know. It's not the case, though, that Herbert's words, or stadium inspections/testimony/etc. are making the sports pages in France, considering how little they devote to the PL in general. Google searching sites in France for "Peter Herbert" and Tottenham hit unrelated stories like
this one, where Herbert comes up in context of the John Obi Mikel business. The
only article I could find that referenced Herbert and Spurs directly comes from
So Foot, an intellectual football magazine with leftist leanings (so not likely to be read by right wing thugs in Lyon) that merely pointed out that Spurs, despite Herbert's complaints, will let fans continue to chant as they have (as such, it's largely a
translation/edit of this DM piece):
So Foot said:
Connu pour compter un grand nombre de supporters issus de la communauté juive de Londres,
Tottenham ne verra pas certains chants disparaître à
White Hart Lane. Dans l’œil du cyclone depuis quelques semaines, les
Spurs s’étaient vu accuser de laisser leur public utilisé le mot « youpin » les jours de matchs.
Un fait dont l’Association des Avocats Noirs
s’était publiquement offusquée. Son patron, Peter Herbert, répétait à l’envi que le club ne combattait pas assez l’utilisation du terme antisémite : «
L’argument (brandi par Tottenham disant que c’est une tradition, ndlr)
est le même qu’il y a quarante ans. Je suis profondément attristé que les dirigeants adoptent cette position. (…)
Ça ne posait pas problème il y a cinquante ans, désormais si. », conclut-il.
Les fans de Tottenham, qu’ils soient juifs ou non, pourront donc continuer à chanter la « Yid Army » (l’armée youpine) sans risque de poursuites. Le club a par ailleurs fait savoir ce mardi qu’il «
défendrait toujours la liberté d’expression de ses supporters.»
You continue:
The point is, branding an entire clubs fans racists and then trying to make it a police matter IS newsworthy and is the sort of thing that gets reported internationally. next come the editorials, the response comments and the blogging.
Fair enough, but then the onus is on you to demonstrate this international tempest, not merely speculate about its existence. I've tried to show that I've not found evidence of it in France.
To the casual internet user, Ajax are just as identifiable as Tottenham are... Where was the attack on their fans when they went to Lyon last year?
I have no idea, but I also know there are other variables also in play: Spurs are an
English club, for example, and Ajax aren't, making the attack an anti-English one with a special sauce of anti-Semitism, etc. Ultimately, my point isn't figuring out the motivation behind Lyon and Rome. I won't be able to. My point is more that I simply don't grant Herbert or the SBL as much power over framing the right-wing thug agenda on the Continent as you do.
Furthermore, I can't get around the logic involved: 1. Herbert insists that Spurs fans are "anti-Semitic" in their chanting. Hence, 2. Anti-Semites on the Continent attack Spurs fans for being… Jewish? According to Herbert, we're
not Jews, and we should stop engaging in anti-Semitic activity. Yet to anti-Semites, we
are Jews, who deserve a beating. I simply don't see how the latter follows from the former. OTOH, logic tends not to be thugs' forte…