SPORTS

England, Scotland, East Coast
On Tap For Detroit Maccabians

RICHARD PEARL

Staff Writer

W

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62

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1990

ill it be England
and Scotland or an
East Coast tour —
or maybe both? And what
about the regional competi-
tions? Those are the ques-
tions Alan Horowitz and Jay
Robinson will pose to Detroit
Maccabi Club athletes and
their parents at a special
meeting scheduled for 7:30
p.m. Dec. 4 at the Maple-
Drake Jewish Community
Center.
The meeting will discuss a
couple of proposed trips for
early summer 1991, plus the
regional JCC-Maccabi
Games that are on tap for
Aug. 18-22 as well as plans
for the following fall and
winter. Detroit Maccabi
sports coordinator Horowitz
and club secretary Robinson
are hoping to gauge the
athletes' interest via the
meeting.
"We have a pretty good-
sized program planned and
we will announce it to all
who attend the meeting,"
said Robinson.
One of the proposed trips is
to England and Scotland,
where three Maccabi clubs
have invited the Detroit club
to send a soccer team. In ad-
dition, several eastern
United States cities want
Detroit girls' softball and
boys' basketball teams to
visit for competitions.
The invitations are an
outgrowth of Detroit's suc-
cessful hosting last August
of the 1990 Jewish Commun-
ity Centers North American
Maccabi Youth Games,
which drew over 2,000
teenage Jewish athletes
from around the world. The
athletes were hosted by
1,000 Detroit families, in-
cluding those of Maccabi
Club members.
To reciprocate, the Mac-
cabi clubs in London and
Manchester, England, and
in Glasgow, Scotland, have
invited Detroit's boys' soccer
team on a 12-to-14-day tour
of their cities. The tour
would include sightseeing
trips and games against
those Maccabi teams, with
players' families hosting
their Detroit counterparts.
The Detroit team has been
invited to bring high school
players up to age 18, in-
cluding former Maccabi
players, according to
Horowitz.
The proposed seven-to-10-

Will interest be as great as for the Bob-Lo trip at the
Detroit games?
Jewish teens ages 13-16, are
day East Coast bus trip
scheduled for Wayne, N.J.,
would feature visits to
Cleveland and Omaha.
Washington, D.C., New
Robinson said the
Jersey, Pittsburgh,
meeting's agenda will in-
Cleveland and possibly
clude some home-and-home
Toronto. The Detroit teams
series with other U.S. cities
would play against, and be
that are under consideration
hosted by, Maccabi teams in
for autumn and winter in
those cities. A Detroit
1991.
volleyball team also might
be included, and the soccer
Originally, the Detroit
team might join the tour if it
Club was considering enter-
doesn't go to England and
ing Australia Maccabi's an-
Scotland.
nual sports carnival in
The foreign and domestic
January, but the conflict
tours will precede the re-
with school schedules nixed
gional JCC Maccabi Youth
it, Robinson said.
Games, which are held in
A proposed trip to Israel
alternate years with the
was shelved due to cost, he
North American Games. In
said.
1991, regional games, for

❑

British Laws May Curb
Biased Soccer Fans

London (JTA) — Anti-
Semitic hooliganism, which
plagues soccer matches and
is believed to contribute to
the general violence at such
events, will be curbed by
tough new laws announced
by Home Secretary David
Waddington last week.
Enforcement may elim-
inate taunts like "Gas the
yids" and "Spurs on their
way to Auschwitz," which
have dogged the Tottenham
Hotspurs, a North London
football (soccer) club with a
large Jewish following.
Police officials at the Na-
tional Football Intelligence
Unit, which combats
hooliganism, believe the an-
ti-Semitic chanting is a fun-
damental factor in lowering
the "behavior threshold"
and creating a violent at-
mosphere.
The crackdown followed
recommendations made by

Lord Justice Taylor in his
report on the 1988 disaster
at a soccer match in Shef-
field, where 95 people were
crushed to death.
The tougher laws are also
expected to help police deal
with scalpers selling tickets

Enforcement may
eliminate taunts
like "Gas the
Yids."

outside sports stadium
grounds and spectators who
hurl things at players.
The Home Office hopes to
implement the legislation as
soon as possible.
According to Waddington,
it will "provide valuable
new measures to control
hooliganism and curtail the
unacceptable behavior that
can lead to disorder."