The World's most racist football fans? - The Story of Beitar Jerusalem with Shaul Adar

The Scoreless Thriller Podcast

On this episode of the podcast, I spoke to Shaul Adar, Israeli journalist about his book "On the Border: The Rise and Decline of the Most Political Club in the World." The book tells the story of Beitar Jerusalem, an infamous club both in Israel and globally.

Famous for its racist fans, spearheaded by the ultra group "La Familia", the club has never fielded an Arab player. We spoke about how this club was able to court political influence in the Likud party of Netanyahu, how attempts to bring the club in a different direction have failed and what the club's story tells us about Israeli politics. We also spoke about the fallout from the documentary "Forever Pure", which shows how the fans reacted to an attempt by their former owner to bring in two Muslim players from Chechnya (spoiler alert: not good). It is a fascinating story into an area of the world's football culture that is not too often discussed, and Adar speak eloquently and thoughtfully on the subject.

I really enjoyed both reading the book and discussing it with Shaul, and hope you enjoy it too!

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