Grant: Sinister threats
Photo: AFP
Chelsea: Avram Grant receives death threats
Surrey police dispatched to Chelsea football club’s training facility after package containing note filled with anti-Semitic slurs, threats as well as mysterious white powder sent to Israeli manager
Where is the love? The British publication The Sun reported Wednesday that Special Branch cops were called in to guard Chelsea boss Avram Grant and his wife Tzofit, after they were sent anti-Semitic death threats in a package also containing a mysterious white powder.
The package was sent to Chelsea Football Club’s training grounds in Cobham, Surrey, where a horrified member of staff had occasion to read the hate-laden letter.
England Bound
Ynetnews
Top English team name Avram Grant as their new manager, replacing Jose Mourinho
Grant saw his fair share of racist abuse after replacing Jose Mourinho last September as Chelsea’s manager, but the sinister package contained very specific, virulent threats, and was clearly troubling and sinister enough to warrant an emergency evacuation of the training facility, as well as special guard detail on Grant and his family.
The note addressed to 52-year-old Grant included numerous anti-Semitic slurs and threats, describing the Israeli manager as a “back-stabbing Jewish bastard.” The note also warned Grant that the powder enclosed in the package is lethal and that “when he opens this letter he will die a very slow and painful death.”
An additional note also contained lurid threats of a sexual nature directed towards Grant’s wife, Tzofit, concluding with a warning that “then she will die as well.”
Police personnel, firefighters and an ambulance crew were rushed to the training grounds, sealing off the facility, and putting all staff who came in contact with the package in quarantine. Emergency crews analyzed the mysterious white powder and discovered that it was ultimately harmless.
“There was panic at the training ground – the note said the powder would kill. Fortunately the substance turned out to be harmless,” said a Chelsea source. “Specific actions are being put in place to ensure Mr. and Mrs. Grant are safe,” the source added.
Grant and his team were not at the complex in Cobham, Surrey, having flown to Athens for last night’s Champions League match with Olympiakos, which ended 0-0.
