The German soccer team Ingolstadt will wear jerseys with an anti-fascist message in response to anti-Semitic abuse targeting its Israeli captain, Almog Cohen, The Associated Press reported Saturday. On March 8, Cohen received a message via Twitter from an apparent Union Berlin fan calling the player a "Jewish brute" and demanding he be sent "to the chamber." The message was sent after Union's 2-0 home win, a game with eight yellow cards and two reds in which Cohen was sent off, noted AP . The club wrote on Twitter on Saturday that its main sponsor has agreed to let it carry the message "Right-wing? Only in a 4-3-3!" on the front of its jersey for its game at Paderborn on Sunday. The tweet includes the hashtags #SayNoToRacism and #SayNoToAntisemitism. Union issued a statement after the incident in which it said its win was overshadowed by the "disgusting anti-Semitic tweet" sent to Cohen. The club, based in Koepenick in eastern Berlin, said it was aware of racist incidents in its stadium but that they were seldom reported to security or prosecuted. Cohen later thanked all sides for the support he received. "As a Jewish football professional in Germany, let me just say: I am very proud of my roots and to represent my country in the second division, and to lead Ingolstadt as captain. And that in a country where I've lived for nine years and that I appreciate for its openness," Cohen wrote on Twitter. In recent years, there have been several anti-Semitic incidents during soccer games in Europe. In January, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dutch police arrested five soccer supporters for allegedly singing a chant about burning Jews during a match. In December of 2018, soccer fans in Belgium chanted about burning Jews during a match in the city of Bruges. In April of that year, fans of the Italian soccer team Lazio taunted a Rome rival with anti-Semitic chants about Anne Frank. In 2016, Chelsea fans were filmed singing an anti-Semitic chant on a London subway following the team's victory over Tottenham.
