UEFA has fined the Scottish membership after its followers waved hundreds of Palestinian flags in the course of the match towards Atletico Madrid final month.
Scotland’s Celtic Soccer Membership has been fined $19,000 after its followers waved Palestinian flags throughout a Champions League match towards Atletico Madrid final month, UEFA has stated.
The match, which happened on the membership’s house floor Celtic Park in Glasgow, noticed hundreds of followers wave the Palestine flag and show banners supporting the folks of Gaza amid Israel’s warfare on the besieged strip.
The governing physique of soccer in Europe deemed the flags to be “provocative messages of an offensive nature” in a press release on Wednesday.
Followers, who had been warned by the Scottish membership to not show flags earlier than the October 25 recreation, could possibly be heard singing “You’ll By no means Stroll Alone” whereas holding the Palestinian flags in a video shared broadly on social media.
As kickoff neared, the stadium remodeled right into a sea of Palestinian flags, each stand awash with the colors of Palestine in a present of solidarity with these in Gaza below Israeli assault.
Supporters additionally unfurled two massive banners at Celtic Park that learn “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Resistance”.
The primary flag bearers, actually and figuratively, have been the Inexperienced Brigade – an “ultras” group shaped in 2006, famend for his or her Irish Republicanism and unflinching assist for the Palestinian trigger.
Afraid of penalties, the membership urged followers to not heed the Inexperienced Brigade’s name to point out assist for Palestine on the match, releasing a press release asking “that banners, flags and symbols referring to the battle and people international locations concerned in it should not displayed at Celtic Park right now”.
Just a few days previous to the match, in an obvious warning to the group, Celtic banned the Inexperienced Brigade from all away video games. Following the show towards Atletico Madrid, that ban has been prolonged to all house video games.
In a letter to followers, the membership outlined a number of causes for the ban, together with anti-social behaviour, using pyrotechnics and crucially “towards Atletico Madrid, one other unauthorised show, breaching the restrictions beforehand communicated”.
The membership was additionally fined $12,550 for followers blocking passageways and utilizing pyrotechnics.
Followers say assist for Palestine will proceed
For the Inexperienced Brigade, there’s little doubt that it was the show of solidarity with Palestine which led to a ban on their attendance.
“The opposite points are a smokescreen,” the Inexperienced Brigade instructed Al Jazeera earlier this month.
“The membership are very intelligent and cynical. They need to sanction us, they need to punish us. They need to ship us a message to attempt to preserve us in line and deter us from doing additional motion.
“However they know very effectively that on the difficulty of Palestine, they’re not on sturdy floor as they don’t have quite a lot of assist amongst the broader fanbase on that difficulty. In order that they’re utilizing different points that they assume they are going to have assist on to sanction us.”
The group stated they have been “unashamed of and unequivocal of our assist for Palestine” and insisted that it’s going to proceed.
“And as soon as once more the broader Celtic assist confirmed that they too had the braveness and conviction to face and be counted. To aspect with the appropriate aspect of historical past and voice assist for the underdog, which on this case is the Palestinians.”