Antisemitism hiding as humor: The use of "#JewGoal" as a slur both online and offline ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Antisemitism hiding as humor: The use of "#JewGoal" as a slur both online and offline

The New Media and Society academic journal reports on a phenomenon of the term "#JewGoal" - a slur that has spread from the online gaming community to actual football (soccer) games.

Specifically, this article explores the spread of the antisemitic hashtag – #JewGoal – from the FIFA video game community into wider online football discourse. The term, ‘Jew goal’, describes a type of football goal, where, in a two-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, a player passes the ball across the goal instead of taking a direct shot. The term originated among the FIFA video game community, where it is a recognized tactic employed while playing the game.1 It implies a level of opportunism or ‘unfairness’, which, without breaking any rules, the player who scores such a goal is seen as capitalizing on the preceding play, or the efforts of the passing player, resulting in the accusation that the scoring player has achieved a ‘cheap’ or ‘easy’ goal. In doing so, the term draws from the racist antisemitic stereotype of the lecherous ‘Jew’ living off the hard-work and effort of others (Marcus, 2015). What remains unique to the term, however, is how it has migrated from video game to online discussions of real football games. In effect, the tactic, while widely recognized within the FIFA community, has since been used to describe similar actions in real-life play. This phenomenon reflects a significant development in the manifestation of antisemitism within online spaces, particularly where the fictional world of video games intersects with real-world sports discourse.

The article goes into details of how social media posts use the term #JewGoal - very often the entire tweet is antisemitic but it pretends it is just being edgy or funny. Examples:

Willian & Torres definitely don’t have foreskin #JewGoal
spurs has absolutely Anne Franked it #JewGoal
Real Madrid to the gas chambers. #jewgoal
I’m about to shove a dreidel up your arse #jewgoal #fifa13 #tweetit
#MUFC equalise with a goal straight outta’ the synagogue. #JewGoal

This kind of humor, whether intentionally or not, ends up mainstreaming antisemitism throughout an entire community.