Jonny Gould's Jewish State

Find Jonny's writing and other podcasts on his Substack. Buy him a coffee here. A chunk of my background, both personal and professional, has been washed away. I didn’t think football was supposed to hurt like this. Banning a mere thousand or less Israeli football fans from Villa Park for a Europa League tie is a cause for deep sorrow. But not just for me, an Aston Villa fan through my Holocaust-surviving grandfather who setup his typewriter shop bang next to Aston Station on the Lichfield Road, but for this generation of Villa fans and those to come. Because football is supposed to be a thrilling, entertaining source of pride. Not a dispensary for anger and shame, of imported hate and community breakdown. Is the Beautiful Game still beautiful? My generation and those that came before had the best of it. We enjoyed league title wins, European glory and trips to Wembley. But it would have meant nothing without the communal joy and camaraderie it spawned. And for this Jewish kid, it was a high volta