‘I hadn’t experienced antisemitism before 7 October’ says former star footballer

Former Wycombe Wanderers footballer Joe Jacobson said this week that he had never experienced antisemitism in his football career until 7 October.

Speaking as part of a sporting panel at the ORT UK business breakfast on Thursday, Joe, who played for the club until last year, said: “It was only after what happened on 7 October that I started getting a little bit of stick on social media.

“People reacted to a post that I made. There was no controversy about the post – I’d made sure that I had gone through all the comms and media people.

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“It got to a point where people were threatening to turn up at the club and barricade the stadium gates on match day.”

He recalled how the club provided extra security for him. “I didn’t really realise what was going on but the club had arranged for a player to come with me, someone to meet me at my car and escort me in. Usually, you can have pictures with fans but I wasn’t able to do that either and it wasn’t until later that I realised why.”

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Also on the panel, which was moderated by sports lawyer and podcaster Daniel Geey, were presenter and broadcaster Talia Lazarus and top sports agent Leon Angel, head of CAA Base. Leon noted that antisemitism in football had “got a lot worse” since 7 October. “I’ve got a lot of Israeli players who can only go to certain teams. One of my players was in Berlin and looking to move and we had to consider which club he would go to. One of the Italian clubs, because of their ownership, would not take an Israeli player and there was a British club that wouldn’t take a player from Israel because their captain was very pro-Palestinian.”

On a lighter note, Leon, one of the first agents in the UK to be licensed by the FA, also relayed a transfer story that included Arsène Wenger, Diego Maradona and the Pope.

Wenger and his long-term adviser Leon, were in a queue of about 300 people as part of a private audience invited to meet Pope Francis inside the Vatican when they were trying to secure a deal to sign Danny Welbeck from Manchester United. Maradona was also in the queue.

Just as the pair reached the front, Wenger’s mobile battery died. Rushing straight to the stadium afterwards, Leon eventually had to tiptoe into the dressing room and get Wenger to approve the deal before the teams headed out for kick-off and the window closed.

The 100-plus guests also heard the panel talk about employability skills and mentorship. ORT UK is an education charity that runs the ORT JUMP mentoring and employability skills programmes for secondary school students.

Leon spoke about what makes a successful football coach: “good communication skills, hard work, leadership skills and being a good motivator”, while Talia Lazarus, who was seriously injured in 2021 when her e-scooter collided with a bus and had to learn to walk again, spoke about overcoming adversity.

“When you’re in the darkest of places, you have two choices.” While Talia was in rehab, she ran the half marathon, which she completed in 2023. “My body kept telling me to give up but my mind said keep going.”

Daniel Geey, a partner in the sports group at Sheridans, said: “It was a privilege to host such an accomplished and inspiring panel from the sporting world. The stories they shared with us demonstrated what can be achieved with hard work, determination and self-belief.

“These key attributes are central to ORT UK’s ORT JUMP programmes, which help young people develop the skills and confidence to take the next steps on their career path. The event was full of positivity for the future, reflecting ORT UK’s vital work supporting the next generation.”

ORT UK chair Annette Kurer said: “The [SP]ORT UK Business Breakfast was a fantastic opportunity to promote how the ORT JUMP programmes empower the next generation of students to achieve their potential through mentoring, employability skills training and alternative work experience opportunities. Our panel of sporting stars from the Jewish community shared their career journey experiences and how much they attribute their current success to mentoring and strong workplace skills.”