We have some updates for you on the recent Tottenham Hotspur controversy. On Sunday’s game, any Spurs fans chanting “Yid” in the crowds could receive a warning or even be arrested, The Guardian reports.

Scotland Yard said its officers would be taking action to “stamp out” chants featuring the word, and said that while it had historically been perceived by some as acceptable, it caused “harassment, alarm or distress to others”.

Chief Superintendent Mick Johnson, the match commander on Sunday, said: “This topic has been debated at length but our position is clear: racism and offensive language have no place in football or indeed in society.

Though the Spurs have a lot of Jewish fans, and they’ve long called themselves the “Yid Army,” in September, the Football Association decided it might be time for the fans to retire the chant, considering “Yid” has long been regarded as an anti-Semitic slur. Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in— probably on the wrong side of the argument— claiming that fans should chant “Yid” if they want because if they use the word to describe themselves it can’t be considered hate speech. But what Cameron seemed to overlook is that “Yid,” like any other reappropriated word, might be used politely by members of the tribe, but it then gets used in hateful ways by others (another football team has chanted Holocaust jokes and “F– the f–ing Yids! F– the f–ing Jews!”).

Many, including comedian David Baddiel, spoke out against the word and its negative connotations. Football fans aren’t exactly known for their obedience, so we’ll see what happens on Sunday’s game.

Previous: David Cameron Defends “Yid” Chant at Tottenham Games

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It’s been a long weekend, what with the holidays and all, so here’s what you’ve missed in the United Kingdom’s football fandom controversy. There’s a debate going down between Prime Minister David Cameron and British comedian David Baddiel over the Tottenham Hotspurs’ fans’ use of the word “Yid” in their sideline chants. The Football Association came out and said that the word has anti-Semitic connotations and that fans continuing to chant the word could face stadium banning and legal action. Cameron decided to weigh in, defending Spurs fans—many of whom are Jewish—who chant “Yid” to describe themselves:

In an exclusive interview with the JC, the Prime Minister said that supporters of Tottenham Hotspur, who refer to themselves as Yiddos in terrace chants, should not face criminal charges. “Hate speech should be prosecuted, but only when it’s motivated by hate,” he said.

The FA explained that a reasonable observer would find the word offensive and Baddiel agreed.

Yid is a race-hate word. It was daubed across the East End by Oswald Moseley’s Blackshirts, along with the word Out. The only possible reason why a culture that has tried to dismiss other race-hate words to the margins of language would consider it acceptable is if the racism of which it is a part is somehow less offensive, somehow less significant, than other racisms. Which must be, I guess, what a lot of people consciously or unconsciously think – if it had been the N-word or the P-word, it wouldn’t have got past David Cameron’s lips.

Orthodox fans of the Spurs claim that Tottenham games are the safest spot for Jews in England. Chanting “Yid” or “Yid Army” is prideful in their stadium, however, at other teams’ games fans have used the chant derogatorily, Jake Wallis Simons writes in The Telegraph.

There are also, of course, other more troubling contexts in which the word is used. Baddiel recounts that at the Chelsea stadiums, one fan “decided to upgrade” the chant to “F– the f–ing Yids! F– the f–ing Jews!” And at many football grounds both in London and around the country, the chant is accompanied by hisses to represent the gas chambers, and “celebratory references to Auschwitz”. It would be hard to conceive of anything more offensive; this stuff must be dealt with.

Probably a good idea for Cameron to stay out of this one. The fans are taking a survey to decide if they want to get rid of the chant.

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