On Thursday, Chelsea FC, in cooperation with the The Office of Lord Mann, the ICCA and the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG), hosted the first Global Conference on Football’s Role in Combatting Antisemitism at Viola Park. In addition to high-ranking representatives of the English top club, government officials were also invited.

With Austria Wien having already visited the memorial on Judenplatz in Vienna on Tuesday, the ceremony of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) with the Austrian Football League (ÖFBL) as well as the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) took place there on Thursday. It kicked off the conference at Viola Park.

After speeches by Lord John Mann, UK Government’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and EU and Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler, several experts as well as leading figures from the world of sport were invited to the podium.

Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community of Vienna and the Federal Association of Jewish Communities in Austria, Thomas Hollerer, General Secretary of the Austrian Football Association, Hannah Lessing, Secretary General of the National Fund for Victims of National Socialism and Co-Head of the Austrian Delegation to the IHRA, and Daniel Lörcher, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Borussia Dortmund, discussed the spread and combatting of Antisemitism in football and in society.

During the conference, Austria Wien also became the first soccer club in Austria to adopt the IHRA working definition.

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