Dutch police arrested 154 football fans yesterday after they chanted anti-Semitic slogans on their way to a game in Amsterdam. “Police arrested 154 football supporters that night for singing anti-Semitic songs on a subway train,” police said. Accordingly, the incident happened around 7.30 p.m. in a subway station near the Johan Cruyff Arena, where Ajax Amsterdam plays its home games.
Fans were told to stop chanting “several times” before being arrested on charges of public insult, police said. The authorities did not name the club of the arrested fans. Third-placed Ajax played fourth-placed Eredivisie AZ Alkmaar last night. Local news channel AT5 reported that those arrested were AZ fans.
Authorities announced a crackdown
Ajax’s opponents often refer to the club as ‘The Jews’ in reference to Amsterdam’s large pre-WWII Jewish population. The club had numerous Jewish chairman and players in the 1960s and 1970s, including former Netherlands national team captain Bennie Muller and striker Sjaak Swart.
The term “The Jews” has often been used in an anti-Semitic manner by opponents in the past. The Dutch football authorities have announced a crackdown following several incidents of misconduct and hooliganism by football fans.
