Chelsea FC has commissioned a British-Israeli artist to paint a giant mural of Jewish footballers and British prisoners of war to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The art installation is part of the football club’s Say No to Antisemitism campaign – funded and devised by its Russian-Israeli owner, Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea fans have courted controversy in recent years after a number of instances of antisemitic chanting – primarily aimed at supporters of rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Solomon Souza, who made Aliyah to study in a yeshiva at the age of 17, is best known for his spray-painted murals on the shutters of Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market.

His artwork will be displayed on Stamford Bridge’s West End wall, and will be unveiled on January 15.

Mr Souza said: “I am delighted to be invited to Chelsea and commissioned by Mr Abramovich to create this project. My grandmother, Liselotte Souza, escaped the Nazis in 1939 and came to the UK, so this piece means a lot to me and my family.

“Art can be an extremely powerful tool to tell important stories. I hope that my installation at Stamford Bridge will inspire everyone that sees it to challenge and oppose prejudice and hatred in society, at a time when it feels like it’s getting worse.”

The 12-by-seven metre mural will portray three footballers who were sent to Nazi death camps – Julius Hirsch, the first Jewish player to represent Germany; Jewish Hungarian player and manager Árpád Weisz; and Ron Jones, a British prisoner of war known as the “Goalkeeper of Auschwitz”.