I have a soft spot for Lincoln because of the time that Barry Fry was your manager whilst Jonny Still was ours (Barnet’s). I went to a Bees-Lincoln match with BF in charge of LC and JS in charge of Bees, with a couple of players on each side having played for both teams too. The atmosphere was really friendly and fun, with BF getting a big cheer both before and after the match. It was a good match with a few goals too, though I forget the score.
pan
I’ve always heard that Ajax are the “Jewish” team of the Netherlands, with Feyenoord being the ones said to have an anti-Semite problem.
Guess it just goes to show you.
Good to hear today that Oldham are back to normal levels of incompetence. We hear about this fantastic striker from Ballymena, Shea Campbell, who can’t stop scoring, and take him on trial. Unfortunately somebody fails to twig that he can’t play without international clearance, since he’s not English. And can we get that? Nope; if we did, when he went back to Ballymena he couldn’t play since he’d have to get international clearance again - and you can only do it once per season.
They are. The are our (spurs aka the yids) “sister” team, because of this (and a deep mutual hatred of feyernord). If you go to White Hart Lane you will see Ajax flags, shirts etc (even though they are red and white, which can cause confusion).
There are close links between the fans, and we regularly entertain Ajax fans in London, a favour they reciprocate.
Feyernord have a nasty anti-semitis set of chants though. (well I’m told they are, they’re in Dutch so they could be saying anything)
Yet another Gooner here. I would be less optimistic than the others about Arsenal’s prospects. They have benefitted hugely from others’ slip-ups and, while they may win the Premiership, they don’t have the same air of invincibility about them as they did towards the end of last season. They look decidedly vulnerable in midfield when Vieira’s missing and they have leaked goals at an alarming rate (Campbell’s always good for a howler and has yet to form a stable centre-half pairing as his partner changes nearly every week).
On the plus side, they have been excellent going forward and Pires’ patchy performances since coming back from injury seem to be improving. I still think Bergkamp has a lot to offer when he plays in the hole behind the front two and he’s a big loss away in Europe. Their next two CL matches are against Ajax and good performances are crucial to their prospects of reaching the knock-out stages. They certainly don’t want to be looking for points in their final match away to Valencia. They have every chance of reaching the quarter finals but I can’t see them winning the thing. They rely hugely on Henry’s pace in away games and he tends to drop the head if he’s kept quiet early on. The best in Europe can exploit that.
Overall, another good season so far but I’m not breaking out the champagne yet.
So what do people think of Charlton’s shenanigans? Sure the Stamford Bridge pitch was crap, but the referee passed it as fit to play on. Surely that ends matters?
pan
Crikey, I just typed a long-ass reply and lost it all when I accidentally hit the back button.
So, here’s the short version. Ajax was founded by Jews, still has a large number of Jews on the board, and is widely seen as a Jewish club, even though it has never been restricted to Jews only.
Supporters of opposing teams shout anti-Semitic stuff (Feyenoord of Rotterdam being the worst), and Ajax supporters respond in kind, partially by chanting “Joden! Joden! Joden!” (“Jews! Jews! Jews!”, not as an insult, but as a chant of pride), partially by displaying Israeli flags, et cetera. Only a small number of Ajax fans is actually Jewish - much like the population. And I’d say none of the supporters are anti-Semitic. Even though most are blissfully ignorant of the Jewish faith and couldn’t tell a synagogue from a pub, they’re all Amsterdammers, and they all DO know about the Jews, what they went through, and that the Jewish component in Ajax and Amsterdam at large is considerable.
Feyenoord fans have often chanted stuff in stadiums that I dare not repeat here. Suffice it to say some of them bring Palestinian flags in response to the Israeli flags brought by Ajax supporters. At that stage, you just know both subgroups of supporters are too stupid to live. Luckily, it’s only a small minority: I can assure you that 95% of all football fans in the Netherlands are normal people without any racist or anti-Semitic tendencies whatsoever.
I just wish both sides would drop the dumb flagwaving already.
As I said the analogy with spurs is very close. Most spurs fans aren’t jewish, although we have been owned by Jews off and on for all our life (we actually started out as a YMCA!).
Its the same thing: We refer to ourselves as “yids”, have songs to that end and so on.
In actual fact Arsenal - who have the worst anti-semitic songs etc have at least as many jewish fans as we do, and that David Dein he ain’t catholic!
Chelsea were very naughty to even attempt a game on that pitch, especially if they didn’t warn Charlton… but Charlton blew their chances by not complaining officially before the game, or even immediately afterwards. Now, they look like bad losers.
You should see the sight of Hun fans giving Nazi salutes wrapped in an Israeli Flag for the Old Firm derbies. Its a sight, I’ll tell ya.
Yeah, what’s the deal with the Israeli and Palestinian flags at OF matches these days? Is this some subtlety of the NI business that I’m missing here?
Well, the parallels between the NI situation and the Israel/Palestine situation are clear. I’ve seen pictures of Israeli flags flown over Belfast. I guess it’s a sort of empathy for people in the same boat, or something. Nevertheless, it’s mindnumbingly stupid, especially at a football game. In Scotland, no less. 
Oh I totally agree Coldie. Just asked a colleague about the Nazi salutes, and he reckons it’s a representation of the Red Hand of Ulster. Aye, right.
Anyhoo, I can report that Alloa Athletic are enjoying one of their worst seasons in living memory, playing some remarkably dour and lead-footed football, and are currently propping up Division One. Back to Div 2 looks a certainty and to be fair that’s about the right level for a part-time outfit. The quality of the half-time pie remains, as ever, excellent.
Bizarrely, a young lad on the Alloa books (just turned eighteen) has landed himself a two-and-a-half year contract with Real Mallorca after initially being spotted playing on the beach on holiday by a Mallorca scout.
While I’m not a big fan of bringing politics into football I do think the extent to which it goes on at Celtic has been partially beneficial in that it’s created a level of political awareness and interest that is probably unparalleled at a lot of other clubs. Certainly there are eejits that wave Palestinian and Basque flags without having the slightest clue about the situations in those countries, but a lot and I mean a lot of other Celtic fans have begun to educate themselves on those issues and I don’t see how that can possibly be considered a bad thing.
It has also helped to create a climate in which it would simply be impossible for a right-wing/ neo-nazi element to take any kind of shape amongst our support, and for that I am incredibly grateful.