Buck off! Letter to the Guardian

[BomTrett 50]

The Guardian newspaper has today (Thursday) published a letter by Chelsea Football Club chairman Bruce Buck, written in response to an article in the paper's sport section.

The club do not believe the article accurately reflected our policy of both condemning anti-semitic and other discriminatory behaviour and acting strongly when such behaviour occurs.

The letter in full is below:

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I am writing regarding the comment by your reporter Matt Scott in your edition of 9th September entitled "Chelsea Fans Question Club's Stance Over Anti-Semitism". I believe the comment is factually incorrect and is unfair to Chelsea's position on anti-Semitism.

As your reporter was advised prior to the publication of the article (and your reporter largely chose to ignore) our club has a strong written policy against discrimination including anti-Semitism. Our policy is promoted at the highest levels of our organisation and is included in the training for all matchday personnel.

Of course, having a policy is not enough. Actions speak louder than words.

We regularly ban 15-20 persons per season for violations of our anti-discrimination policy. Two months ago, a Chelsea supporter was charged and found guilty of a racially-aggravated public order offence for using the same anti-Semitic term you claim we ignore.

We have frequently had campaigns in matchday magazines to advise fans of our policy, and resultant punishment. In fact, we are about to launch a new programme entitled "Building Bridges: Help us tackle discrimination at Stamford Bridge".

Your reporter, in supporting his negative comments on Chelsea, describes two alleged incidents, one of which took place at the DW Stadium in Wigan and the other at Wembley Stadium. He fails to recognise that at both of those venues we have no control over the stewarding, the CCTV cameras, the police or who is or not permitted to enter the stadium.

The facts are that, in each of these two incidents, we received a complaint from one individual in each case (not a "group" as alleged by your reporter). Because these incidents were reported after the fact, it became very difficult to investigate. In one case, the person involved vehemently denied the allegations and there were no corroborating witnesses; in the other situation, the identity of the alleged offender could not be obtained.

Rest assured that, when we can, we will take the strongest possible action against anyone found making any kind of discriminatory chant or taunt. For your reporter to completely ignore the facts and suggest otherwise is unfair and does our club, and the overwhelming majority of our fans, a huge disservice.

Yours faithfully

Bruce M. Buck

Chairman

Found it on the Chelsea website, found it very interesting. Havent seen the original article (in the Guardian) however.

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Chelsea's willingness to tackle anti-semitism has been called into question by a group of fans who were left dissatisfied by the club's handling of two separate incidents.

The group has been moved to complain about instances of a "significant minority" of Chelsea fans chanting "Yiddo, Yiddo," at the Israel international Yossi Benayoun during the game at Wigan. Chelsea responded by saying they had spoken to police and officials but that it would be "unlikely" they would identify those involved.

This followed another complaint from the same group of fans who provided evidence about a man using racially motivated terms to insult Avram Grant, Portsmouth's Israeli manager, at the FA Cup final last season.

The group gave seat numbers to the club, and Chelsea officials followed up the complaint with an interview. The man was warned as to his future conduct but not suspended.

"A number of people have been banned from Stamford Bridge in the past and we won't hesitate to ban others given sufficient evidence," Chelsea told Digger. "

Digger is unable to confirm that, since the club has not provided details. One of the group said: "Whatever they purport to do, in reality Chelsea do nothing."

Guardian