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A Jewish football team has been suspen-ded from their league for fielding players from other religions under fake names.
Holy Mount Zion were playing in the Maccabi Southern Football League when the referee officiating the match became suspicious about the names teammates were calling one another.
Nigel Burns heard players officially registered under the names of Danny Potter and Simon Laub being called “Mariusz” and “Javier” by their team-mates during a game between HMZ and Faithfold on January 31.
Burns challenged both men following the match, with one claiming that Mariusz was his “nickname”.
The referee raised his suspicions with league chiefs, who investigated the players using Facebook and discovered the men’s profiles under their real names.
The scam was only rumbled after HMZ manager Rob Lerner identified the players as Danny Potter and Simon Laub in a photo caption for The Jewish Chronicle.
But the league’s officials then saw the same pictures being used by Polish personal trainer Mariusz Mielniczuk and Colombian banker Javier Guevara.
Six HMZ players have now been asked to prove their “Jewish origins”.
Players under suspicion include university researcher Luigi Minale (28) from Milan, Jaime Augusto and Millan Quijano from Colombia, Guri Singer and Andres Tamayo.
The club has now been banned from playing any more games and the results of their fixtures could be rendered void, throwing the league into chaos.
Rival teams playing in the London league have called for the team to be “expelled” and accused them of bringing a “disservice” to Jewish football.
Simon Beresford of Faithfold C said: “I think it’s absolutely disgusting what they have done.
“They have shown a complete lack of respect towards the Maccabi League and all of the clubs and people involved with it.”
League chairman David Woolf added: “The club came to a meeting and admitted that they had been telling lies. The league is concerned that the club is not to be trusted. They’re doing the Jewish community a disservice.”
HMZ manager Lerner told The Jewish Chronicle he fielded the players because his squad was too small.
He said: “I didn’t have much choice. I had to; it is the only way I could get a team out.”
He confirmed that the players knew they were playing under false names and were “not 100 percent comfortable with it”. – Daily Mail.