Paris soccer club escapes UEFA sanctions over fans’ huge ‘Free Palestine’ banner
Ahead of Israel-France game next week, European soccer’s governing body decides not to discipline PSG over huge flag as it wasn’t deemed ‘provocative or insulting’
PARIS – Paris Saint-Germain F.C. will not face disciplinary proceedings after fans unfurled a huge “Free Palestine” banner before kick-off in Wednesday’s Champions League game at home to Atletico Madrid, European soccer’s governing body UEFA said.
The 50×20-meter banner, which draped an entire, floor-to-ceiling section of the audience at the Auteuil Kop of the Parc des Princes, showed the Dome of the Rock — a focus of Palestinian imagery, and part of the religious site after which the Hamas terror group named its October 7, 2023, onslaught against Israel.
In a post on X on Thursday, France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau criticized the Qatar-owned club, calling for politics to be kept out of sports.
UEFA bans “provocative” or “insulting” political messages in stadiums, but said on Thursday the banner would not lead to potential sanctions despite some uproar in France and although previous political messages at matches resulted in punishments.
“There will… be no disciplinary case because the banner that was unfurled cannot be in this case considered provocative or insulting,” a UEFA spokesperson said.
Responding to the incident, Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France, called the banner “scandalous.”
Scandaleuse banderole ce soir au Parc des Princes !
Une carte où l'Etat d'Israël n'existe plus.
Un combattant palestinien masqué.Ce n'est pas un message de paix mais un appel à la haine.
Les auteurs de cette banderole doivent être sanctionnés ! Intolérable ! pic.twitter.com/eTE8gRJl5p
— Yonathan Arfi (@Yonathan_Arfi) November 6, 2024
“A map where the Israel State does not exist anymore. A masked-up Palestinian fighter. It is not a message of peace but a call for hatred,” he wrote on X.
The 50×20-meter (165×65-foot) banner also featured a Palestinian flag, and a child wearing a shirt with imagery from the flag of Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Hezbollah terror group, and a map of the entire territory of the State of Israel along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip colored in the pattern of a Palestinian keffiyeh.
Last year, Scottish club Celtic were fined 17,500 euros ($18,870) after their supporters waved Palestinian flags at a Champions League match.
UEFA also fined the Albanian and Serbian soccer federations 10,000 euros ($10,700) each for fans displaying banners with nationalist maps at European Championship games in June.
The governing body also sanctioned the Romanian soccer federation over pro-Serbia chanting by supporters during a Euro 2024 qualifier against Kosovo last year, while in 2016, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were all fined by world governing body FIFA for commemorating Armistice Day with poppies on their shirts during matches.
The display of the PSG fans’ banner came eight days before France is set to play Israel in a Nations League game in Paris with spectators allowed in the Stade de France.
Last month, Paris police officials said the game would “of course be open to the public,” though questions have been raised about security surrounding the France vs. Israel game in a country that has the largest Jewish community in Europe as well as its biggest population of Muslims.
Italy played Israel in Udine amid tight security, but Belgium hosted the Israelis in Debrecen, Hungary, after their federation said: “In Belgium, no local administration deemed it possible to organize the Red Devils’ home match against Israel.”
Israel has been at war with the Hamas terror group and its allies since October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, mostly civilians.
Israel’s subsequent military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon have drawn global backlash, including allegations of war crimes which Israel strenuously denies. Antisemitic attacks have also surged worldwide since the Hamas attack last year.
