Fan chants and songs are an essential part of the football match-day experience, but occasionally a line can be crossed and it does not reflect well on anyone involved.
Alvaro Morata bagged his 3rd Premier League goal of the season in a 2-1 win over Leicester on Saturday afternoon to continue his promising form since arriving in London, so naturally the Chelsea fans would be delighted.
The club were not delighted, however, to hear what the supporters have come up with the pay tribute to their new number nine.
After the game, the club released a statement claiming that Alvaro Morata had requested that the fans stop singing the song about him because it contains comments about Spurs fans which some may find offensive.
#CFC statement on Morata song: "The language in that song is not acceptable at all. Alvaro has requested supporters stop singing it."
— Simon Johnson (@sjstandardsport) September 9, 2017
The song, which is the same tune that was made popular by Man Utd fans singing about Nemanja Vidic as well as several other examples, ends with a line referring to Spurs fans as 'fucking yids'.
"he come from Real Madrid he hates the fucking yids"
— Magician (@Hazardpremium) September 9, 2017
The word 'yid' is often used a derogatory term towards Jewish people, but as many of the club's supporters refer to themselves as 'yids' and even do so in some songs of their own, confusion has arisen in the past.
In 2014, the Metropolitan Police issued a statement clarifying that Spurs fans singing songs with the term included was not an arrestable offence after backlash from the Spurs supporters trust, who claimed that there was no offence to be taken when sung by Spurs supporters [via The Guardian].
THST is categorically against ejections and banning orders for use of the term by Tottenham supporters in a match environment.
Our view has always been that should Spurs’ fans’ use of the Yid identity come to an end, this should be as a result of the feeling among the Spurs community that it was time to move on.
This issue has always been of the utmost importance to us and while we recognise that Spurs fans use of the Y-word and associated identity may have caused some upset to members of the Jewish community, we sincerely believe no Spurs fan uses the term in a malicious way.
We do not in any way condone racist language being used by football fans and we are aware of the recent media reporting of racist abuse being used towards opposition fans during matches.
However this was never one of those cases. The word ‘Yid’ simply means ‘Jew’. It was and is still used as a term of endearment by many Jewish people.
Its use in a derogatory way was started by racists in Nazi Germany. This deplorable action should not have the power to forever change its meaning into an abusive term.
While used as a term of endearment by many Jewish people, to claim that a footballer 'hates the fucking yids' is absolutely not an acceptable thing to sing at a football ground and it is totally understandable that both Morata and Chelsea want to distance themselves from it.
It remains to be seen whether or not the request is accepted.
