Juventus fans furious after club president meets Israeli president

As Juventus football club faced a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea earlier this week, the club's president, Andrea Agnelli, to the fury of fans, appeared to be enjoying himself with the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.

Agnelli was accompanied by Juventus star Paulo Dybala, the Argentinian international who also met Herzog and his wife Michal with Dybala gifting him his No.10 jersey.

However, many fans were unimpressed by the Twitter post marking the exchange, and seemingly Juventus knew what the reaction might be by banning comments below its post. 

"This is Agnelli giving the middle finger to all the club's fans in the Middle East. Maximum of shame on and off the field, all in a single day (sic)," said one disgruntled fan adding that "I loved Juventus for the traditions, for the values, and for the sense of family. This Juventus tries so hard to profit off of those things while simultaneously destroying them. It has become just another cold money-seeking corporation."

Many Juventus fans vented their fury at what they see as the club president legitimising the Israeli leader who presides over the occupation of Palestine.

Taking umbrage at Juventus' attempts to silence fans, many highlighted their frustration by quoting the tweet to make sure the club is aware of their dissent.

"Turning off the replies. A bunch of cowards," said one user.

Another fan was even more scathing and said that "Agnelli doesn't just support killing our nights with awful football, he supports killing (sic) of innocent Palestinians too!"

For many fans, Juventus's woes on the pitch seem to be only compounded by the president's own goals off the pitch, with one saying, "our president continues to use our club for (bad) PR stunts rather than focusing on our problems."

Other longtime fans were even more forthright, with one saying, "I've been a Juventino since 1996 and had gone through high and low, so I never thought it would come to this day that I would say this: I'm very ashamed of this club. This club is a real embarrassment."

In recent times, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS), a grassroots international campaign that encourages ethical divestment from companies that financially back the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, has gathered steam in the hopes that it will reverse Israeli behavior.