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Outrage after '3 throws at a Jew' football fan game

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 20.02.2013 09:45
Local government in Lodz, central Poland, says that a game played by fans of first division football club LKS Lodz, where objects were thrown at 'a Jew', is “offensive and anti-Semitic”.

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"2 zloty for 3 throws at a Jew": photo - Lksfans.pl/YouTube

LKS Lodz fans held an indoor football tournament in a sports hall adjoining their stadium at the weekend, but as was noted on fan web site LKSfans.pl, “another attraction provided for people not playing football was a humorous game in which you could throw various objects (including a ninja star) at a model dressed in the players' strip of our neighbour [and arch rivals Widzew Lodz]".

Daubed onto the wall next to the model was a slogan asking fans to pay 2 zloty for “three throws at the Jew.”

A video (which was removed on Wednesday morning) uploaded onto the web site LKSfans.pl shows a fan landing a ninja star in the face of the 'Jew.'

The sports hall where last weekend's tournament took place is run by the Lodz's Municipal Sport and Recreation Centre (MOSiR).

“The anti-Semitic and offensive behaviour of participants in the tournament leads MOSiR to make the decision to never rent out the the hall again for this type of event,” Marcin Maslowski, a press spokesman for Lodz's mayor told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Local prosecutors are looking into whether the football fans' game is prosecutable under Poland's hate laws, according to the PAP news agency.

Lodz, Poland's third biggest city, had one of the country's largest Jewish communities prior to World War II.

Widzew Lodz has a history of being labelled as a “Jewish side” - in much the same way as Ajax Amsterdam or London's Tottenham Hotspurs do - and the club is frequently referred to by fans from some rival sides as Zydzew (using the Polish word Zyd, which means 'Jew').

Matches involving Widzew Lodz were among those filmed in the BBC's controversial Panorama documentary Stadiums of Hate, which was aired prior to Poland and Ukraine's hosting of Euro 2012. (pg/nh)

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