Published: 29 November, 2012

Tony Dallas talks sport… and with more than 20 years working as a sports development officer he knows what he’s talking about

SHAME on those at the Lane on Sunday who thought it acceptable to mimic the sound of gas, sing pro Hitler songs, let off smoke bombs and make up songs about the near death of a football fan.

The repugnant mind of some people astounds me. Tottenham’s Jewish connection has been a well-documented fact, with reference to the supporters’ own chant of “Yids” that usually goes up when rallying their troops or “Yiddo” when scoring a goal.

Is it as bad as someone using the words to remind us of a time that we can never let happen again? No! Back in the day it was a term of endearment, a way of showing unity for a much-maligned supporters’ club. However, as many of these historical things go, now it is an outdated sentiment no longer fit for purpose, until idiots use it as such.

I can understand the people who find it offensive, personally since realising its history, out of respect, I don’t chant it any more. Do I condemn those that do? No, because like me they sing it as a motivational lyric and possibly have no idea of its historical base. Would I sing it in retaliation to rival fans doing what the Irons’ fans did on Sunday? Yes I would, I’m not Jewish but you don’t have to be for that kind of behaviour to infuriate you. Honestly until the media started to call it the “Y word”, like it was some secret, incidents like this and the attacks on Spurs fans in Rome last week, have been far and few between.

Would those Italian thugs have attacked a bar full of Tottenham supporters anyway? Who knows. Did the media outcry about Spurs fans help? No it didn’t.

The managers’ comments immediately after the game show just how much educating we need. Sam Allardyce was asked about the anti-Semitic chants and he initially replied that he has bigger things to worry about, while Andre Villas-Boas said he only wanted to talk about the game. Both have now condemned what happened, but the problem is they took too long. The custodians of our sport have to act immediately, otherwise we’ve got no chance.

This weekend Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws said that his side’s defending was “as bad as the Holocaust”, an outrageous claim which he’s since apologised for.

There’s either a lack of compassion, understanding or both when it comes to racism. Football and sport in general have the biggest opportunity to save society from its social ills but they just won’t do it and I’ll tell you why – because they only want to produce footballers that will do well for their business. That’s it!

They don’t care about anything that doesn’t affect the players’ performance on the pitch. The powers that be are seemingly very short-sighted and have no real idea of social mobility or conscience, for if they did, children’s attitude to health, fitness and education would be different.

The few thugs and racists that haunt all of our clubs would have nowhere to hide and football clubs would be screaming out to be involved in every socially cohesive initiative possible.