BRFC Past Players & Their Memories

Joe Jacobson: Wycombe Wanderers captain on antisemitism rise in football...(Joe played in 71 games for BRFC scoring 1 goal.)

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Joe Jacobson has made almost 400 appearances for Wycombe since 2014

Wycombe Wanderers captain Joe Jacobson says antisemitic abuse aimed at him required his club to organise personal protection before a game this season.

The 37-year-old, one of the few professional Jewish players in England, received abusive messages online.

He said Wycombe also resisted calls for him to be stood down for a social media post he wrote relating to the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7th October.

"It is hate messages," Jacobson told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's not anything to do with what I'm posting, it's just comments that people want to throw at you really."

Kick it Out, an anti-discrimination charity, found that there was an increase of more than 400% in antisemitism in the game in the first half of the season - with reported instances over that period rising from 11 in the 2022-23 season to 57 in the current campaign.

Incidents of Islamophobic abuse also quadrupled over the same period.

Welsh defender Jacobson says he had "felt quite fortunate" that for the first 20 years of his career he had not been faced by antisemitism in football.

"Whenever I'd spoken about antisemitism there wasn't much for me to talk about from my own personal experience," he said. "However, since what happened in October, it seems to be more and more things going on."

Jacobson said developments in the Israel-Gaza war and the historical conflict are not subjects he feels qualified to openly speak about.

'Barricade the gates'
But he did say he was compelled to comment on how others reacted to the deadly attacks - in which about 1,200 people were killed - five months ago when he wrote; "imagine taking to the streets and celebrating mass murder".

"That is the only thing I've spoken about," Jacobson said.

"People have then taken that tweet and brought it to the modern day and months later I'm getting responses to that."

Jacobson said Wycombe also received messages and complaints aimed at the club, which led to an increase in security for the former Cardiff City, Accrington, Bristol Rovers, Oldham and Shrewsbury defender.

"One of them wasn't necessarily a threat, but more a demand that I apologise and demanded that the club took me away from being the captain," said Jacobson.

"They said if they didn't, then they might barricade the gates at Adams Park [Wycombe's home ground].

"Then going to a match, there was all these weird things happening, with people wanting to come with me on the journey, and there were phone calls to friends on the journey saying where were we.

"Then when I got out of the car in the car park there were people surrounding me, Wycombe staff saying 'come on Joe, let's go into the stadium'. And that is really different and abnormal to what it usually is.

"Later on I found out that they had plain clothes security there just in case people were looking to do something.

"Thankfully they didn't, and it was all fine and there was no harm.

"It was something I didn't realise would have to happen going to a football match."

'Responsibility to speak out'
Jacobson said the care and understanding of the League One club has been "amazing" but feels football authorities, including the Football Association and English Football League, "can do a lot more".

The FA was criticised in October for not lighting up the Wembley arch in the colours of the Israel flag following the attacks by Hamas on Israel.

A member of the FA faith in football group, Rabbi Alex, resigned from his post over the decision.

It led to a policy change that the arch would only be lit for football and entertainment.

It also brought about the foundation of an antisemitism task force, which Jacobson is part of.

"Lots needs to be done, but little things like the task force that has been set up are good ways of doing that," added the former Wales Under-21 international.

"For me, I feel a responsibility as one of the few Jewish footballers in the UK to speak out.

"People do need to report instances. The biggest way for the FA, EFL and football to realise the problem it has is by people speaking out and reporting instances that happen - especially in football stadiums and football grounds."

'Incidents of Islamophobic abuse also quadrupled over the same period.'

I'm getting slightly sick of being asked to pretend that Islamophobia must be latched onto any discussion of anti-Semitism as some kind of appendage. 

This isn't how you create balance in a news article, as unfortunately a very substantial part of the anti-Semitism is coming from a particular part of our community. If we care about tackling the problem then we need to acknowledge this and stop pretending this is a major problem across UK society - it isn't. This is the elephant in the room we are not addressing because of political correctness. 

If you want to speak about the problems facing Muslims in football, then do so in a separate article - to my mind, this would be a much better way of creating 'balance'. And to my mind, this community would be better off if it stopped speaking of a 'phobia' at each and every opportunity and started addressing some of its internal issues pertaining to extremism and the open tolerance and endorsement of hatred and violence.