I hate Spurs, there’s no two ways about it. I was born and bred in the east end of London and am an ardent West Ham fan. I love them and have long suffered for it. As for local derbies Orient are our closest rivals in terms of distance but our paths don’t cross too often, there will never be any love lost between us and Millwall and Chelsea aren’t exactly our best mates either but I sincerely hate Spurs. It is an irrational hatred, some of my closest friends are Spurs fan and I have to hide the glee from them every time they lose. I was at the game last Sunday by the time the day had come round none of the lads I was with were particularly enthralled by the prospect of getting thumped again but we persevered.
I arrived at Barking to meet the other lads in the pub at lunchtime, we had a few beers, bemoaned the dire situation we had found ourselves in and shuffled into a crammed Barking station. The train took an eternity to arrive but the crowd at the station were in fine form and there was plenty of banter. We got on the train which proved to be an even more intimate experience with my fellow West Ham fans. This is where I begin to feel a little uneasy. The mandatory choruses of Bubbles were evident and the usual anti-Spurs chants were evident including “We’ll be running ‘round Tottenham with our willies hanging out singing I’ve got a foreskin haven’t you?” Which teeters on the edge of racism but even my Guardian reading ways can just about see the humour in it (added to the fact that I come from an Muslim family and I couldn’t run around on the Seven Sisters Road with my foreskin flailing because I’m sadly lacking in that department) but the climax of the chant was “fucking Jew”, this I found a lot more offensive. A few years ago I was a the FA cup game where we again played Spurs and was a lot more offended by the hissing noises made by our fans to the Spurs support. This time I heard nothing like this during the game itself and I felt the exchanges were generally well spirited if occasionally a little heated due to the on pitch activity.
I don’t believe West Ham fans are racist overall, although I have experienced racism at Upton Park (many years ago and the surrounding fans were quick to reprimand the offender) it is certainly more the fact that the “Yido” nickname has been appropriated by Spurs fans although I know a lot more Jewish West Ham fans than I do Spurs. This said I think we should be actively making attempts to stop chants that on the surface are anti Semitic and I truly believe the majority of football fans aren’t racist thugs but more the chants are a legacy of less enlightened times.
Ultimately I know football, West Ham United, in particular has made a lot of efforts and progress in eradicating the racism that once existed in football (I remember John Barnes describing Upton Park as the most racist ground in Britain) but there are still situations like this that need to be got rid of. That said I still hate Spurs, I don’t think any amount of political correctness will ever temper that.
Update:
Now I read that at half time there were chants of “I’d rather be a paki than a Jew”, I was in the Bobby Moore upper bar area and I heard no such thing there, being Asian myself I should of probably picked up on that really so not sure where those chants were happening.