UEFA is under fire for pushing the “blood libel” myth that Jews kill children, after showing a “Stop Killing Children – Stop Killing Civilians” banner on the pitch before the Super Cup. The Mail has the story.
The banner was shown during the opening ceremony of Wednesday’s showpiece between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur – with it being unfurled by nine refugee children from different conflict zones (Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Palestine and Ukraine).
Ahead of the match at the Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy; European football’s governing body announced that two refugee children from the Israel-Gaza War were going to take to take part in the medals ceremony too.
And following on from the events in Udine, Israeli football figures called out the banner gesture as “hypocritical”, according to Israeli outlet, JFeed. They add that an official also demanded to know “Where were you on October 7th?” as tensions continue during that conflict.
Under their own rules, UEFA state that political messages can not be promoted in stadiums before, during or after matches.
A UEFA insider told the Timesthat the message was “not political but about humanity – in fact you could say it is just common sense”. …
In the past club’s displaying political banners have been punished by UEFA, with Celtic fined £8,635 (€10,000) for the displaying of an “illicit banner” during a match against Israeli side Hapoel Beer Sheva in September 2016. Palestinian flags were visible during the Champions League play-off first leg at Celtic Park on August 17th, 2016.
However, UEFA chose to not sanction the Scottish giants earlier this year during their Champions League play-off first-leg against Bayern Munich.
That February 12th, 2025 match saw a banner relating to Israel was unveiled by supporters at half-time and remained in place for the majority of the second half. Hundreds of Celtic fans held up red sheets of paper in the seats below where the banner -–which read “Show Israel the red card” – was displayed.
