Laws sorry for Holocaust comment

Last updated : 26 November 2012 By Iron-Bru

Laws was speaking live on BBC Radio Humberside after the 4-0 hammering at the Keepmpoat Stadium when he made the remarks.

"I would like to apologise. The use of the word was not intended to cause offence and was used in the heat of the moment, in the frustration of the defeat," he said, in a statement released via the club's official website.

"It was a poor choice of language to define those emotions and wasn't meant in the true meaning of the word."

Around six million Jewish people are believed to have been murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, with up to 17 million people killed in total.

Laws' comments came at a time when anti-semitism was in the news, with a Tottenham fan stabbed last week in an attack apparently motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment.

Lazio fans also sang anti-Semitic songs at Spurs fans, something allegedly followed by some West Ham supporters on Sunday.

It brought criticism from the Board of Deputies of British Jews , who said they would write to the Football Association urging punishment against both the Hammers and the Iron.

"Anti-semitism has no place in football or society in general. For football fans to use Holocaust imagery and chants glorifying Adolf Hitler is grossly offensive to the Jewish community and is a stain upon the character of British football. This in the same week that Tottenham fans were attacked in Rome in an apparently antisemitic attack," they said in a statement.

"Events at White Hart Lane and comments on Saturday by the Scunthorpe United manager describing his team’s defending as being 'as bad as the Holocaust' confirm that this phenomenon is not confined to the Continent.   

"Clearly there is either a lack of understanding or a lack of compassion within some sections of the British football world about these issues; a lack of understanding or compassion which needs to be addressed."