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Monday, January 06, 2014

Dutch soccer team slammed for leaving Jewish player out of UAE trip

The Dutch soccer team Vitesse is facing criticism at home and abroad for leaving home a Jewish player who was not granted a visa to play two matches in the United Arab Emirates.
Two Dutch politicians and several media criticized the team Vitesse from Arnhem over the weekend for agreeing to play in Abu Dhabi despite the refusal Saturday to let Dan Mori into the country for matches against two German teams.
Geert Wilders, leader of the rightist, pro-Israel Party for Freedom, on Sunday called the team cowardly on his Twitter account. “Vitesse shouldn’t have gone to the United Arab Emirates to protest the refusal to let Mori in. They are now accepting the emirates’ Jew-hate. Cowardly.”
Pieter Omtzigt, a lawmaker for the CDA party, told Dutch media on Monday that Vitesse should behave like Dutch lawmakers, who refuse to visit places which try to dictate the make-up of parliamentary delegations.
Ester Bal, communications director for Vitesse, said the team “stays away from politics and religion. We have always done this. We are a soccer club.”
Management said in a statement that the decision to go to Abu Dhabi was made because “the team had obligations and wanted to prepare to the best of our abilities for future matches.”
Recall that in 2009, Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er was barred from playing in neighboring Dubai. There was such an uproar over her exclusion that Pe'er was allowed into the 2010 version of the same tournament and reached the semi-finals. Something tells me that Mori won't be allowed to play in the Emirates next year either because no one stood up for him.

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posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:14 PM

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