Soccer Football – Champions League – Paris St Germain v Atletico Madrid – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – November 6, 2024 A banner on support of Palestine is displayed in the stands before the match. Photo: Reuters/Stephanie Lecocq
The French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) will not face potential sanctions after its fans unveiled an oversized banner with the slogan “Free Palestine” before kick-off of the team’s UEFA Champions League game on Wednesday, European soccer’s governing body said.
A UEFA spokesperson explained on Thursday that while the UEFA bans “provocative” or “insulting” political messages in stadiums, it does not consider the “Free Palestine” banner to be either one of those. “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, as reported by Reuters.
Last year, the Scottish club Celtic was fined almost $19,000 after its fans waved Palestinian flags at a UEFA Champions League match.
The massive “Free Palestine” banner covered a large section of PSG’s home stadium of Parc des Princes in Paris on Wednesday before the Qatar-owned team lost in a Champions League match to their Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid. The letter “i” in the word “Palestine” was replaced with an image of the State of Israel, which was covered with the pattern of a black and white keffiyeh. The banner also showed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a man with a keffiyeh scarf covering all his face except his eyes, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the back of a man who had a Lebanese flag wrapped around him.
The banner was organized by the PSG’s hard-core fan group, the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP), and was shown above another banner that featured a slogan written in French: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.” During the match, PSG fans in the stands raised another banner that read: “Does a child’s life in Gaza mean less than another?” according to Reuters.
The banners were shown as Israel continued its military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both Islamist terrorist groups seek Israel’s destruction and are backed by Iran.
The banner was also raised eight days before France and Israel compete in Paris against each other in a UEFA Nations League game, which pro-Palestinian activists are trying to have officials cancel because of Israel’s involvement.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau took to X on Thursday to condemn the “Free Palestine” banner at the soccer match a day earlier.
“I ask PSG to explain itself and the clubs to ensure that politics does not come to damage sport, which must always remain a source of unity,” Retailleau wrote. “This tifo had no place in this stadium, and such messages are also prohibited by the regulations of the League and UEFA. If this were to happen again, we will have to consider banning tifos for clubs that do not enforce the rules.”
In an interview with Sud Radio following the match, Retailleau said the banner was “unacceptable.”
“I want to know more and now how this banner came to be unfurled. The Paris police chief (Laurent Nunez) explained what happened. We agreed on a certain number of things but I am demanding accountability,” he added.
PSG said in a statement on Wednesday night that it was not aware “of any plans to display such a message.”
“PSG emphasizes the Parc des Princes is — and must remain — a place of communion around a shared passion for football and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in the stadium,” the team said.
France has the largest Jewish community in Europe — and the third largest in the world, following the United States and Israel — but also the continent’s largest Muslim community.
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