Israeli club sanctioned for fans´ racist slogans

Israeli football authorities have deducted one league point from Beitar Jerusalem and ordered the club to play a home match behind closed doors after their fans shouted anti-Arab slogans, a report said on Friday.

Beitar, the reigning Israeli champions, will now play their next home game against Maccabi Tel Aviv on May 9 in an empty stadium, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported.

The penalty was imposed after Beitar’s notoriously rowdy supporters chanted “death to Arabs” during a match against Maccabi Petah Tikva on April 18.

The club already have two points deducted for this season after an earlier infraction and currently lie in third place in the table, seven points behind leaders Maccabi Haifa.

Beitar were crowned league champions last year, but only after a last-minute scare when they were threatened with a points deduction following a pitch invasion by their fans in premature celebration.

Owned by Israeli-Russian billionaire Arcady Gaydamak, the club has had repeated run-ins with the football authorities.

In November 2007, the Israeli Football Association banned Beitar fans from two home games after they booed through a minute’s silence in memory of assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Some fans even sang songs praising Rabin’s murder by Yigal Amir, a Jewish extremist who was jailed for life after he shot the Nobel peace laureate three times in the back following a Tel Aviv peace rally on November 4, 1995.