ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
It's been a tough few weeks for supporters of Liverpool Football Club. The unsavoury scenes witnessed last Friday made a bad situation even worse and it has been hard watching the club's proud name being dragged through the mud.
Over the years, I've spoken to Oldham captain Dean Furman about antisemitic abuse in football. I'm glad to report that his experiences of it have been few and far between.
On this occasion, the allegations regard the colour of a player's skin but when MPs get together to discuss racism in football, I sincerely hope they address not only the race issue but also the religion one as well. Although it's harder to police, vitriolic abuse on the terraces as well as on the pitch needs to be addressed with a much firmer hand.
It was a great shame that what was meant to be the proudest moment of Dean's career ended in controversy, but he has handled himself very well in the spotlight and with great dignity.
● The three remaining JC Cyril Anekstein Cup quarter-finals take centre stage on Sunday. There's an all-Premier Division affair as Brady Maccabi come up against Southgate Harmen A. In Paul Hakim, TJ Keterman and Jon Green, Brady now have arguably the strongest strike-force in Maccabi football and I can see them having too much for Dan Uzan's men.
Elsewhere, North London Raiders A will be out to avoid an upset when they take on Division Two promotion hopefuls Hendon United B, while Hendon A are highly-fancied to win at Faithfold C. My prediction is for Brady, Raiders and Hendon A to join Brixton A in the last four of a competition in which the final will be played at Wingate & Finchley's Abrahams Stadium on April 29.
● Another match to keep an eye on is the one between Blizzard Storm and North West Neasden C in Division Three of the JC MSFL. There will be something of a Southend Jewish Youth Club reunion as the stars of 1992 go head to head in what should be an cracker.
Lining up for Blizzard will be Oli Simons, Adam Speck, Stuart Muller and Mike Woolf. They will come up against Neasden's Louis Taylor, Adam Levene and Simon Levene.
Blizzard's Nick Rubin, Seb Vandermolen, possibly Adam Zecharia and player-manager Simon Linden are other SJYC old boys in contention. The Blizzard boss also predicts big things from wonder kids Dan Vandermolen and Joel Kanutin.
Looking ahead to the game, Linden said: "There will be lots of rivalry on the table with bragging rights up for grabs." All that's missing now is a guest appearance from Chas & Dave.