‘We’ll sing what we want!’ – Tottenham’s ‘Yid Army’ takes defiant stand against club’s appeal

Some Tottenham fans disregarded the club’s request to “move on” from using the Y-word by chanting it in the opening moments of the league game with Wolves.

It was the first outing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since the club released results of consultation with supporters, which revealed 94 per cent of 23,000 people asked acknowledged it was a racist word.

Spurs said in a statement: “We recognise how these members of our fanbase feel and we also believe it is time to move on from associating this term with our club.”

But the request was met with resistance on social media when it was announced and the fans showed no signs of taking it on board inside their stadium.

Chants of ‘Y** Army’ were audible from within the first couple of minutes and continued throughout the game.

Spurs fans have traditionally used the word, which is seen as anti-Semitic, as a way of standing up to abuse that began in the late 1970s and it is still used commonly at games today.

Read more:

• Moving on from the Y-word is a welcome step in a never-ending process
• ‘Spurs take the knee to eradicate racism – then fans sing the Y-word’
• Tottenham Hotspur: ‘Time to move on from the Y-word’