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Berlin's local soccer association on Friday sanctioned a lower league club, ordering its players and coaches to take part in an anti-racism seminar after a group of fans chanted anti-Semitic slogans at Jewish team TuS Makkabi.
The Makkabi players said the referee in the district league, five levels below the Bundesliga, refused to intervene when fans and some players chanted "Gas the Jews", "Auschwitz is back" and "Fuehrer, Fuehrer" as well as other anti-Semitic slogans.
TuS Makkabi's players walked off the pitch in protest in the 78th minute of their district league match at VSG Altglienicke in East Berlin last month after referee Klaus Bruening did not stop the anti-Semitic chants, saying he had not heard them.
Anti-Semitism
Reuters
Players of lower-league team Tus Makkabi walk off pitch after facing 'gas the Jews' and 'Auschwitz is back' chants
A Berliner Fussball-Verband (BFV) spokesman said on Friday its five-member sport court had ordered the match be replayed at a neutral venue and ruled that Altglienicke must play their next two home matches without any spectators.
It also ordered the players and coaches to take part in a "seminar against racism" organized by the Berlin soccer association. Any players or coaches who refuse to take part in the seminar will lose their right to play in any Berlin leagues.
There are 300 clubs in Berlin with 100,000 members.
The sport court heard the arguments of the two sides at a hearing on Tuesday.
German Football Association (FA) president Theo Zwanziger, who has vowed to crack down on racism, had closely followed the case which drew extensive media coverage across Germany.