French Inside Minister Bruno Retailleau has criticised the revealing of a large “Free Palestine” banner by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) soccer followers earlier than their group’s UEFA Champions League match in opposition to Atletico Madrid, saying it’s “unacceptable”.
Retailleau stated he would “demand explanations” from the membership after the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP) hard-core fan group unveiled the banner earlier than kickoff on the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday.
“I’m not ruling out something,” Retailleau informed Sud Radio on Thursday.
“I wish to know extra and now how this banner got here to be unfurled. The Paris police chief (Laurent Nunez) defined what occurred. We agreed on a sure variety of issues however I’m demanding accountability,” he added.
The incident got here eight days earlier than France hosts Israel in Paris in a UEFA Nations League sport.
The sprawling tifo – 50 metres vast and 20 metres excessive, and unfold over each tiers of the stands behind the PSG aim – depicted the Palestinian and Lebanese flags with a picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem at its centre.
“Struggle on the pitch, however peace on the earth,” a message beneath stated.
It additionally confirmed the historic map of Palestine.
In the course of the match, the followers unrolled one other message that learn: “Does a toddler’s life in Gaza imply lower than one other?”
“This banner had no place on this stadium,” Retailleau wrote on X.
“I ask PSG to elucidate itself and the golf equipment to make sure that politics doesn’t come to break sport, which should all the time stay a supply of unity,” he stated, including such actions have been banned by each French soccer and UEFA.
“If this have been to occur once more, we must contemplate forbidding banners for golf equipment that don’t implement the foundations,” he added.
In a press release after the match, PSG stated that they had not been conscious “of any plans to show such a message”.
“Paris St Germain recollects that the Parc des Princes is – and should stay – a spot of communion round a typical ardour for soccer and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in its stadium,” the membership added.
Al Jazeera reached out to PSG after the French minister’s remarks. The membership has not responded but.
Final 12 months, Scottish Premier League membership Celtic have been fined $19,000 as a result of their followers waved Palestinian flags throughout a Champions League sport after the conflict in Gaza broke out.
The membership’s followers defied earlier bans on flying the Palestinian flag.
“We’re unashamed of and unequivocal of our help for Palestine,” the group informed Al Jazeera in November 2023.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at the very least 43,391 Palestinians and injured 102,347 because the begin of the conflict on October 7, 2023, in response to the Ministry of Well being in Gaza.
In Lebanon, at the very least 3,050 individuals have been killed and 13,658 wounded in Israeli assaults because the conflict on Gaza started.
An estimated 1,139 individuals have been killed in Israel throughout the Hamas-led assaults on October 7, 2023, and greater than 200 have been taken captive.
France tackle Israel on the Stade de France subsequent Thursday, and followers are being allowed into the 80,000-capacity stadium.
Questions have been raised about safety surrounding the occasion in a rustic that has the most important Jewish neighborhood in Europe – and the third on the earth, means behind america and Israel – in addition to the largest variety of Muslims in Europe.
Final month, Paris police officers stated the sport would “in fact be open to the general public”.