The Football Association has been accused of sending a message that ‘Jews do not count’ and letting down England’s Jewish community by refusing to light up the Wembley arch in recognition of the Hamas terror attack.
Lord Mann, who is the adviser to the Government on anti-Semitism and has been in talks with the FA all week, also believes the response to the events in Israel of football’s governing body in England represents “a failure of leadership”.
The FA on Thursday announced that a minute’s silence would be held at England’s friendly against Australia for the “innocent victims of the devastating events in Israel and Palestine” and that players would wear black armbands in recognition of the loss of life.
Lord Mann had lobbied the FA to light up the Wembley arch in the blue and white colours of the Jewish prayer shawl, rather than the Israeli flag, in the days leading up to the game and has directly expressed his disappointment to the organisation for refusing to do so.
Speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport, Lord Mann said: “I don’t speak for the Jewish community, but I already know what they think about this. People have rung me and messaged me repeatedly from across the Jewish community and the message is that, in terms of football, ‘Jews don’t count’. That is what people are saying. Of course, the FA has let down the Jewish community.
“It’s a failure of leadership at the top of football and their arguments to Parliament about a football regulator and not needing one or that the FA should be the regulator are dramatically weakened by it.
“I had a number of conversations by email, telephone and conference call about lighting up the arch, not in the Israeli flag but in the Jewish religious colours, the colours of the Jewish prayer shawl, which is what Parliament has done and the French government has done on the Eiffel Tower.
“You could do it in the Jewish community colours with 17 British citizens murdered, one kidnapped, and that’s the ones that are known about. With the symbolism of the Wembley arch being across all of London as well. They’ve refused that. I left the FA in no ambiguity about the situation in the Jewish community and the trauma of the Jewish community at the moment in this country, and why I thought it was important that football was seen to do something.”
Lord Mann informed the FA why he felt a minute’s silence at a game being played during the Jewish Sabbath would not be appropriate and has now asked them to name the Britons killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on the Wembley big screens.
“I pointed out to them that a minute’s silence on Friday was useless because there won’t be any Jewish people there,” Lord Mann said. “It’s a Friday evening match. I explicitly pointed that out to them. I also told them that the last time there was a minute’s silence for the Jewish community that I can recall was after the Munich Olympics, when the FA called one, and it wasn’t successful. So I told them that as well.
“I’ve expressed my disappointment directly to them and what I’ve asked and what I hope is that they will name the British citizens, whose names are known, who have been murdered. On the big screens. Only some names are known, but I hope they will have the decency to do that.
“That will make the minute’s silence much more meaningful, even without the Jewish presence. That’s the one thing that would make that event meaningful and I’ve suggested that to them. That would go some way to showing the Jewish community they understand and are with them in their trauma.
“This wasn’t about football supporting Israel, that’s politics, this was about standing in solidarity with a community impacted by terrorism and it was the Jewish communal colours and the prayer shawl colours in exactly the way the speakers of Parliament did it and President Macron has done it in France.”
‘The FA has failed to step up to the mark’
The FA’s statement made no specific mention of the Hamas attack or terrorism and Lord Mann said: “There was a major terror event, impacting a significant community directly and unambiguously a terror event. There will be a conflict now, but this was a terror event.
“I’ve been speaking to different FA officials and FA board advisers and their position is no different to the press interviews Debbie Hewitt (chairwoman of the FA) gave on Tuesday in Nyon. It’s an identical line she used in Nyon on Tuesday. They’ve failed to step up to the mark.”
Lord Mann is pleased the FA has banned flags, other than those of England and Australia, for Friday night’s friendly, but believes the measure needs to extend further.
“I warned them [the FA] of the dangers across community football this weekend and beyond this weekend,” Lord Mann said. “I strongly proposed no flags, because the battle of the flags will be very unhelpful. It begs the question: what are they going to do to ensure the well-being of Jewish participants in grass-roots football this weekend? What are they going to do? I’ve raised this directly with them. What are they going to do?
“Someone holding a flag for national pride is one thing but doing it to antagonise other communities is another. So that’s quite explicit. That’s the one thing that’s happened that in my view is helpful and sensible. But that has to be and I’ve made the point to them, flags on T-shirts and at grass-roots level. This is much more likely to be an issue at grass-roots level.”
