Chelsea FC calls in police over abuse of Israeli player

JTA — Managers of an English soccer club contacted police to investigate online anti-Semitic abuse of an Israeli player.

After Yossi Benayoun revealed last week of the abuse on Twitter, the Chelsea Football Club contacted police, The Guardian daily reported.

Benayoun, a midfielder whose contract runs out at the end of the season, retweeted a message that contained expletives and referred to his Jewishness.

The tweet read: “f**in Jew a**hole” and was written in reply to a message by Benayoun in which he thanked his followers for their birthday greetings. “Some nice people in the world,” Benayoun wrote in a response to the abusive message.

Last month, Chelsea said it would investigate after Benayoun said he was the victim of anti-Semitic taunts and booing from his own supporters when he came on as a substitute against Liverpool. He took to Twitter after the match to inform a wide audience of the abuse.

He wrote: “The booing came from (a) small part of the Chelsea fans (that have) been doing it since I did an interview about [Fernando] Torres. There is some other issues the club is taking care (of) and try to handle them in the right way … as sometimes people are crossing the limit. And I’m sure the club will sort it.”