Chelsea FC fan pleads guilty to antisemitic tweets

• Published date: 08 October 2021
• Author: TAL SPUNGIN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Nathan Blagg, 21 years old, was charged with seven counts of sending offensive messages by public communication network in September, for messages sent between February 2020 to February 2021.

The tweets had a "racially aggravated" element to them due to their antisemitic nature, prosecutor David Roberts said.

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Fans of Chelsea's local London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, which has a long historical association with Jewish supporters, were the targets of these tweets. In his tweets, Blagg used an upcoming match against Tottenham as an excuse for his antisemitism, saying "I can tweet as much anti-Semitism as I want without being told off."

Blagg went on to post photos and videos of Nazi salutes as well as calling to "gas a Jew," according to the BBC.

Tottenham, which used to have a majority of Jewish fans due to the club's proximity to London's Jewish areas, is still identified by rivals as a Jewish club to this day. Antisemitic chants during Tottenham matches were commonplace since the 1960s.

Throughout the years, Tottenham supporters have adopted and attempted to re-appropriate the word "Yids," a Yiddish term for the Jewish people, after fans of rival clubs used the term as an antisemitic slur. Like Chelsea, Tottenham is also Jewish-owned, with Daniel...