Two Israeli football teams — Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva — that were set to play their European Championship matches in the Polish city of Łódź have been banned by the hosting country.
The Union of European Football Associations previously announced that Israel will not be allowed to host UEFA-sanctioned matches due to the ongoing war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
As a result, the Israeli clubs announced that their new “home stadiums” would be the Władysław Król Municipal Stadium and the Stadion Widzewa in Łódź. Soon afterward, two Polish clubs that play at the stadiums released statements distancing themselves from the decision, with many fans expressing antisemitic outrage on social media.
The Polish city’s Cultural and Sport authority then released a statement saying that no Israeli teams would play at any facilities in Łódz because “the safety of Łódź residents and visitors is the highest priority for the city.”
Yacov Livne, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland, slammed the decision and lodged a complaint with the Polish city.
“Today it was announced that Łódź banned Israeli Football teams from the city, after extreme-right activists had threatened the organizers. I told Łódź municipality that one should not give in to such threats. Łódź needs to remain a place of tolerance, not fear,” Livne wrote.
“I can’t imagine that teams from the state responsible for war crimes in Gaza will play their matches in Łódź as hosts. Israel murders innocent people every day. An arrest warrant has been issued against Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu by the Hague Tribunal,” Tomasz Grabarczyk, leader of the Łódź branch of the right-wing political party, Confederation, wrote in a statement.
One of the Polish clubs based in Łódz has a history of antisemitism.
In 2016, a group of ŁKS Łódz hooligans set fire to “Jewish” effigies and paraded a banner calling for the burning of Jews. Years earlier in 2013, fans of the same team invited visitors to an indoor tournament to play a game in which they could throw objects at “Jews,” models dressed in uniforms of the club’s rival, Widzew Łódź. A sign next to the game informed players that for a meager price they would be given “three throws at the Jews.”
