Voice of Jewish Sport

NO ONE comes out particularly well from the latest spat in Jewish football. Zig Zag Marshside want an apology from the Masters League and their Chairman, after they were handed a 12-point deduction for fielding a non-Jewish player, who was recommended to them by the chairman. Taking the case to the London Football Association, who ruled in their favour and upheld their appeal, they now want to see a restructuring within the League, though along with the apology, you wouldn’t bank on either being that forthcoming. As far as the League are concerned, they believe they acted in a “fair and reasonable” way, deny singling out the club and aren’t too happy at being asked to pay the £1,500 legal bill. Sometimes terming it ‘the beautiful game’ doesn’t seem so apt.

HAVING WRITTEN in this column last week how Avram Grant seemed to be flavour of the month with even Prince William asking him if he fancied taking the then vacant manager’s role at Aston Villa, it seems not everyone holds the Israeli football manager in such high esteem. Afia Schwarzenegger, a controversial Ghanaian Radio/TV personality– and no relation to the Terminator actor – took to her Facebook account to call Grant a b****** for not beating Ivory Coast in the final of the African Cup of Nations. Saying he had broken the hearts of all Ghana football fans after their penalty shoot-out defeat, as he had done with Chelsea supporters, she also accused Ghana’s government of allegedly wasting £2.5m on a foreign coach instead of concentrating on the national crisis the country is facing. It seems you can’t please everyone.

THE POSITIVE news is Israeli tennis player Julia Glushko reached her first ever quarter-final of an WTA event. The downside is that once she got there, it didn’t last long as she won just three games in an emphatic loss. Elsewhere, Shahar Peer’s stay in the Emirates States – one that was problem-free off the court – is over after she was knocked out in the third qualifying round of the Qatar Open.