Chelsea
chiefs have pledged to continue standing up to discrimination despite
charting a "disappointing" rise in anti-Semitism in football.
Owner Roman Abramovich was subjected to unprecedented social media abuse
totalling almost 3,000 messages in May, coinciding with anti-Semitism and
racism in the UK amid conflict in the Middle East.
Chairman Bruce Buck has revealed Chelsea owner Abramovich's dismay at the
rising tide of anti-Semitism - but insisted the long-standing Stamford
Bridge custodian remains forthright in his and the club's bid to tackle
discrimination.
Chelsea have launched a three-year partnership with the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) amid their latest Say No To Anti-Semitism initiatives, with the
scale of abuse directed at Abramovich laid bare.
"Mr Abramovich was certainly disappointed in a broader sense, not just
because things were directed at him, but because of generally what was going
on," said Chelsea chairman Buck. "And I think that's the way everyone at the
club felt.
"In a certain sense charting all this can be depressing but in a certain
sense it is also very hopeful.
"And hopefully the hope will last longer than the sadness.
"It has not been an easy time for those who fight discrimination in the last
year and a half.
"But it's important also to remember that when we do stand up for what we
believe in and causes like this, it leads to good things."
Chelsea hosted an anti-Semitism and football seminar at Stamford Bridge on
Tuesday, where industry leaders came together to chart the way forward in
the fight against racism and discrimination.
Pledging to help other leading football clubs mirror their initiatives, Buck
continued: "We honestly aren't interested in taking all sorts of credit for
this, we'd love to share all our resources, all our thoughts, even some of
our people to other clubs, to engage in similar, or in dissimilar activities
related to fighting discrimination.
"The only way this is really going to work is if there's a geometric
multiplier in there.
"We'll be happy if we can move the needle a little bit, this is a very big
issue and Chelsea will not solve this by itself.
"And it needs lots of people participating in it and that's what we'd really
like to see."
Senior vice president for international affairs Sharon Nazarian spoke on US
organisation the ADL's partnership with Chelsea.
Nazarian outlined Chelsea's pioneering work with the Say No To Anti-Semitism
campaign that has been running for almost four years.
Kick It Out chief executive Tony Burnett also hailed Chelsea's stance on
fighting anti-Semitism, pledging the anti-discrimination organisation will
now look to follow the Blues' lead.
"A club as big as Chelsea taking the stance they have taken around these
issues, is brilliant," said Burnett.
"It's a shining light, and it gives us the opportunity to follow in the
slipstream.
"But we're going to do more on anti-Semitism because not enough has been
done in football.
"We've got a model to follow now, and we can hopefully add to that as well.
"We're really hopeful that we can build something sustainable that can drive
real change in fighting anti-Semitism.
"Historically it's been alleged that Kick It Out was formed to fight racism
against black players and coaches.
"But we're very much of the belief that you can't just fight one form of
discrimination, because discrimination is wrong in all its forms.
"We looked at our strategy and realised we weren't doing enough on
anti-Semitism and we brought together a group of stakeholders with vast
experience in this area.
"And we want to drive concrete action, we want to root out discrimination
and we want to call it out when it happens.
"Success for us looks like fewer instances of anti-Semitism but also it's
far more vocal opposition when we do see anti-Semitic incidents in
football."
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