The president of the United States does not normally tweet, as he did last week, about football fans fighting in a European city. But as reactions to the violence in Amsterdam have shown, this was no ordinary outburst of football hooliganism, but another polarising moment in the debate about antisemitism.
The trouble in Amsterdam after the Europa League game between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv was not even a traditional fight between rival football fans. I’ve been watching football since the 1970s and, like many others, have become attuned to the bizarre subculture of football violence.
