Thousands of Palestinian flags were displayed by fans during their team’s UEFA Champions League match versus Atletico Madrid.
Despite the club’s prohibition on the exhibition of Palestinian flags, Celtic fans continue to flaunt them.
Celtic Football Club fans disobeyed club directives by waving hundreds of Palestinian flags during their team’s UEFA Champions League match against Atletico Madrid.
On Wednesday, the Scottish Premiership champions hosted the Spanish team at Celtic Park in Glasgow for their group-stage meeting.
The club issued a statement ahead of the game indicating that both teams’ players and coaching staff will wear black armbands as a show of respect and support for all those affected by the conflict [between Israel and Palestine], but asked fans not to demonstrate their support in the stands.
We ask that banners, flags and symbols relating to the conflict and those countries involved in it are not displayed at Celtic Park at this time, the club stated in a statement.
Fans, however, ignored the warnings and hoisted up thousands of Palestinian flags before start, continuing to wave them throughout the game.
During the first half of the match, fans in the North Curve sector of the stadium staged a tifo – a choreographed show – of the Palestine flag and unfurled giant flags behind the home team’s goal.
Before the game, several thousand fans in other parts of the stadium held aloft a sea of smaller flags as they sung along to the iconic football anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone and chanted chants in favor of Palestine.
The Green Brigade, an ultras group of ardent Celtic supporters, has urged followers to disregard the club’s statement and continue their show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
‘Fly the Palestinian flag!’
Celtic have barred the gang from attending any of their team’s away games till further notice, citing their unsafe and unacceptable behavior in recent games against Motherwell and Feyenoord.
Hundreds of supporters were barred from attending away games due to an association with the Green Brigade; despite receiving no correspondence, no allegations, or any detail regarding any investigative process, according to the group.
Despite disingenuous claims, we have absolutely no doubt that these sanctions are motivated by a desire to quash political expression within the Celtic support, specifically in relation to Palestine at this time,the group said in its statement on Tuesday.
In spite of this, and any further obstruction, we once again encourage fans to courageously fly the flag for Palestine.
Celtic was fined by UEFA last month for their fans’ usage of flares during their match against Feyenoord, and they could face another fine for last night’s show of sympathy with Palestine.
Celtic’s board of directors distanced themselves from the group earlier this month after they unfurled banners reading Free Palestine and Victory to the Resistance!! during a Scottish Premiership match against Kilmarnock in Glasgow on October 7.
‘Ignorant of what is important’
Fans lambasted the club, claiming that the show of support on Wednesday came from a large section of the supporters, not only the Green Brigade.
