Chelsea have promised to take the strongest possible action and press for criminal convictions if anyone engages in anti-Semitic behaviour during Saturday's Premier League clash with Tottenham.
In a warning to both home and visiting supporters ahead of the Stamford Bridge fixture with Spurs, whose fans like to call themselves the 'Yid Army', the Blues vowed to come down hard on discriminatory behaviour.
A statement on chelseafc.com read: "The support of both sets of fans will make for an excellent atmosphere, and we urge everyone to keep that support positive.
"For a small minority this game also brings a deeply unpleasant and unwanted level of anti-Semitic abuse which has no place in football or anywhere in society.
"Opposition supporters using terms as a form of identity is no excuse for abusive chanting or behaviour. The club asks that all supporters realise such actions cause huge offence to those around them.
"The Football Association reiterated in its directive announced last year that the use of the 'Y' word in football stadiums is unacceptable and could amount to a criminal offence, leaving those fans liable to prosecution and potentially a lengthy Football Banning Order.
"This is fully supported by Chelsea Football Club. The diversity at Chelsea is obvious to everybody, and a source of pride.
"The players on the field, the supporters in the stands, our staff, directors and owner (Roman Abramovich, who is Jewish) all illustrate our vision as a club which embraces equality, regardless of race, gender, sexuality or religion.
"We have worked hard to combat all forms of discrimination at Stamford Bridge. If we receive evidence that supporters have engaged in anti-Semitic or any other form of discriminatory chanting or behaviour we will take the strongest possible action, including supporting criminal prosecution."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article