Why Chelsea's anti-Semitism campaign goes way beyond PR

It was a statement that nobody would have associated with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, a man so obsessed with winning trophies that he has spent almost £100 million on sacking managers.

But just as Abramovich’s cheque book has remained open in pursuit of on-pitch success, there is no limit, financial or in terms of time, to his commitment to Chelsea’s campaign against anti-Semitisim that was launched two years ago.

Writing in the programme for last season’s game against New England Revolution, organised to promote Chelsea’s anti-Semitism campaign, Abramovich said: “While people know us for our teams and our clubs on the pitch, sport is about far more than trophies. It is about ensuring our organisations play a positive role in all our communities.”

The fact the game took place less than two weeks before the Europa League final and that Eden Hazard was among the starters proved that Abramovich’s words were anything but a catchy soundbite.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has not been able to play for Chelsea since the friendly after rupturing an Achilles and yet the midfielder this month spoke at the launch of the giant mural that has been painted on the side of Stamford Bridge to mark Monday’s Holocaust Remembrance and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

“Obviously, we are not just trying to spend money for the sake of spending money. But if we have a project, Mr Abramovich doesn’t think twice before he says ‘yeah, let’s do it’,” said Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman.

“The campaign has to be timeless and measuring progress or any kind of success is the hardest part that we have. We are not trying to take credit for this and we would like others to do more.”

It was striking that Loftus-Cheek claimed to have been pleased to take part in the game against New England Revolution, billed the Final Whistle On Hate, even though he has not been able to play since. Buck was not so surprised and believes the campaign is having a big impact on Chelsea’s players.

“When our first holocaust visitor came to speak to the first team at Cobham, I think we all appreciate that footballers and young people don’t always like sitting around being spoken to,” Buck said. “But these fellas were stuck to their chairs for 45 minutes and no one was checking their phone. And after that session, they made it clear how powerful it had been and were all talking about it.

“We’ve been very pleased by the reaction of our players at all levels – the academy players we took to Auschwitz, the women players who have met survivors. They have all bought into it and that’s gratifying.”

Given the club’s history of anti-Semitism among a section of their own fan base, it is understandable that Buck is wary of making any grand pronouncements over how exactly success or progress will be judged for Chelsea.

It was only in December 2018 that Chelsea fans were accused of anti-Semitic chanting at a Europa League game and head coach Frank Lampard has been forced to answer questions on the issue this season over a song about rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

“Chelsea recognise that we have some problems, we are not shying away from that,” said Buck. “To a certain extent that is one of the reasons we are doing it, but not the only reason because we have a bigger picture.

“We are trying, as best we can in creative ways, to deal with the problem we have. But we believe our problems in racism and anti-Semitism here at Stamford Bridge are significantly less than what they were 20 or 30 years ago.

“When we started this campaign, just before we launched it, we expected there to be a fair amount of negativity on social media and we decided we would just deal with it.

“But there has hardly been any. I want to say none, but there has almost been 100 per cent no negative reactions on social media, which we are surprised and pleased at.”

Chelsea have already attempted to re-educate some supporters found guilty of anti-Semitism and Buck added: “Honestly, it depends on the severity on the incident. But we feel very strongly and our fans do too that we should try education in situations where that might work. That’s what we are doing and we have done about a half a dozen of them up to now, and we are optimistic. But, of course, there are some things that are so serious that you can’t resolve them by sending people on a two-week course.”

Lord Mann, the Government’s adviser on anti-Semitism, believes Chelsea are already making strides, underlined when, on Thursday, the club’s campaign was praised in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Stephen Crabb.

On its significance, Mann said: “This is real stuff. It’s easy to do good PR and football is good at that, and there is nothing wrong with that. But that’s not serious stuff, it’s a nice gesture. This is well beyond the PR.

“I have been around a lot of sport on anti-Semitism and there is often a tendency to basically say, ‘Here’s a bag of goodies’. You turn up to an event and go home with a bag of goodies and that’s it.

“Think yourself lucky you have come, off you go. This hasn’t been the case at Chelsea and that’s why you immediately think ‘this is serious’.”

Chelsea became the first sports club in the world to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism and others are now starting to follow.

Mann said: “We would like to see clubs adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in their working practices because then they know what they are talking about and the definition will be clear. It’s not a legal definition, it’s a working definition. It’s two pages and the police refer to it when they need to decide if something is anti-Semitic. They then decide: ‘Is there something we should be doing?’ That’s a separate decision.

“It means if an employee has said or written something that could be classed as anti-Semitic, then you have a clear guide or HR check to work from. It’s very useful in the workplace and for football, when you have this whole supporter base and thousands of people turning up at your stadium, you can say, ‘This is inappropriate and here is why’. It’s also a great base for re-educating someone.”