BRUSSELS—Last May, the Belgian Football Union’s appeals commission decided to absolve supporters of Club Brugge KV following antisemitic and homophobic comments made during a match versus RSC Anderlecht.
Club Brugge supporters had chanted “Whoever does not jump is gay” and “All Jews are gay,” during the match in the Constant Vanden Stock stadium in Brussels. Despite the fact that the office of the Federal Prosecutor had requested a heavy fine for the club, the appeals commission acquitted Brugge, saying that the chants were not discriminatory, nor were they aimed at offending Jews or homosexuals.
“The terms used simply indicate a sexual orientation or a population group. The word ‘Jewish’ has no derogatory or discriminatory connotation, nor does the word ‘homo’,” the Commission had said in its verdict.
The World Jewish Congress and its Belgian affiliate CCOJB had called on the Belgian Football Union to reconsider its decision to absolve the supporters.
Yohan Benizri, the President of CCOJB, an umbrella group of Jewish organizations, announced Tuesday that following an arbitration procedure by CCOJB and the Forum der Joodse Organisaties (FJO) in Antwerp, the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport (CBAS) condemned the Brugge supporters’ songs conferring on them an offensive character.
‘’It was with relief that we took note of the decision of the CBAS condemning the songs,” said Yohan Benizri.
In a statement, he said : ‘’The CCOJB and the FJO once again insist on the fact that at no time was it a question of accusing Club Brugge or its supporters of anti-Semitism or homophobia but of eliminating folk songs. of another age who had absolutely no place in a football stadium.’’
‘’We sincerely hope that by this decision, the governing bodies of each club but also all fans of the Kingdom will understand that in a changing society, a sign of its democratic vitality, some practices are likely to disappear. It is therefore the moral responsibility of everyone to make every effort to respect or enforce this decision and the philosophy that encompasses it,’’ the statemen added.
The CCOJB and the FJO said that they ‘’remain at the entire disposal of the clubs and the federal authorities to collaborate in the fight against any form of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia or discrimination of which one of the main enemies is the banalization of expressions as these songs could be.’’
In a separate incident in August of last year, Brugge fans were caught on tape shouting chants including, “Mijn vader zat bij de commando’s, Mijn moeder bij de SS, En samen verbanden ze Joden, want joden die branden de best”. When translated into English the phrase means, “My father was part of a commando (unit), my mother was SS, and together they burned Jews, because the Jews burn the best.”