AZ condemn anti-Semitic chanting after 154 fans arrested in Amsterdam

Football club AZ Alkmaar has condemned the behaviour of 154 supporters who were arrested for anti-Semitic chanting on the Amsterdam metro at the weekend.

The fans ignored repeated warnings to stop the chants while travelling to the Eredivisie match against Ajax on Saturday afternoon, prompting police to stop the train at Strandvliet station.

All but 11 of the supporters were released later that evening. Police said two officers had been verbally and physically abused, and windows in a bus used to take them to the police station were smashed.

AZ and its supporters’ association condemned the behaviour of what it called ‘a small section of our support’.

‘The club condemns inflammatory behaviour and discrimination in the strongest terms and explicitly dissociates itself from those who are guilty of it,’ the club said in a statement.

Eddie Verdoner, the national co-ordinator for combating anti-Semitism, said the arrests were an ‘important signal’ that discriminatory language would no longer be tolerated around football.

‘People are getting the message that this is no longer acceptable. I’m glad this is happening,’ Verdoner told NOS. ‘We can see a turning point, things are finally changing.

He argued that racist chanting at football had a corrosive effect on wider society. ‘You can see when someone uses that kind of language in a football context that it filters through. “Jew” is used in the classroom, for example, which makes Jewish people feel unsafe.’

Ajax fans adopted the nickname ‘Super Jews’ and began waving Israeli flags at matches after the war, even though the club has no direct Jewish roots.

In recent years the Amsterdam club has come under pressure to drop its adopted identity on the grounds that it has encouraged anti-Semitic chanting and references to gas chambers by opposing fans.