The Making of “Jew Clubs”

Why do non-Jewish football fans chant "Yid Army" or wave "Super Jews" banners-especially in support of clubs that are not Jewish? The Making of "Jew Clubs" explores how four major European football clubs-FC Bayern Munich, FK Austria Vienna, Ajax Amsterdam, and Tottenham Hotspur-came to be seen as "Jew Clubs," even though they have never officially identified as Jewish.

In this transnational study, Pavel Brunssen traces how both Jewish and non-Jewish actors perform Jewishness, antisemitism, and philosemitism within European football cultures over the 20th and 21st centuries. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources-from fan chants and matchday rituals to media portrayals and club histories-the book reveals how football stadiums have become unexpected stages for negotiating memory, identity, and historical trauma.

Offering a new approach to Holocaust memory, sports history, and Jewish studies, The Making of "Jew Clubs" shows how football cultures reflect and reshape Europe's conflicted relationship with its Jewish past.