‘Anti-Semitic’ farce in battle to replace Blatter as FIFA boss
Justin Cohen is the News Editor at the Jewish News
A racism row has erupted in the race for FIFA’s next president after a senior figure at Bahrain’s football association mistakenly claimed an Israeli heads one of the candidate’s campaigns, writes Justin Cohen.
Several tweets from the account of Mohammed Mdwb, the Bahrain national team’s media officer, sought to draw attention to the claims this morning.
The first showed a screen grab of an article from a Jewish newspaper about the appointment of UK-based PR guru Shimon Cohen to represent Prince Ali of Jordan.
Another showed an image of Welsh-born Cohen alongside Prince Ali – wrongly describing the former as Israeli.
One of Prince Ali’s rivals to succeed Sepp Blatter is Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, former president of the Bahrain FA and current President of the Asian Football Confederation. He is viewed as favourite for the top job in a five-man race.
The PR’s Office’s Cohen – the one who is actually involved in Prince Ali’s campaign – told the Jewish News: “It is racism and anti-Semitism and has no place in football. I am also very upset at being mistaken for a 73 year old retired footballer.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
