Fans Call Foul As Palestine Flag Confiscated At Aviva

On the evening of Thursday the 1st of October, a group of 'Stop The Game' activists threw tennis balls wrapped in stickers of the Palestinian flag with the words “Stop the game” printed on them, onto the pitch of the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which created a slight interruption to the match but drew major international attention to their protest against the FAI's continued whitewashing of Israels ongoing genocide of Palestine & their aggressions and incursions on other neighbouring countries such as Lebanon.

All activists were promptly ejected from the stadium.

But before this protest, and before the game even kicked off, a fan by the name of Seán Ó Donnghaile, was patiently queuing in the security line, with ticket in hand and two friends by his side, all equally as excited about watching Ireland play.

Aontacht had the pleasure of speaking with Seán on his experience of attending Aviva Stadium in Dublin, here is what he shared with us.

“On Thursday evening I was attending the Ireland -V- Austria game in Aviva Stadium.

One of my friends was bringing an Ireland flag, so I decided to bring a Palestine flag, in the spirit of showing solidarity as we often had before.

I had it folded in a small carrier bag which I was holding.

I hadn’t considered it would be an issue, I had previously attended loads of Liverpool games and Celtic games etc, and never encountered, or was ever before accosted by a "Flag Police” empowered to pinch flags off fans.

When I came to the entrance stall a security guard began to search me, noticing the small carrier bag in my hand he asked me what it was. I replied by telling him it was a flag. Immediately the expression on his face became concerned, he then asked me

“What type of flag?” as he proceeded to open the bag to look inside.

After he examined the contents of the bag for what seemed like a long time, he declared that it was a “Palestinian flag!”. I replied by saying yes. Then he started to inform me very loudly & sternly that this was an “orange flag”, a term I had never heard before. He called over two other security personnel, and all three security guards that now surrounded me, unequivocally confirmed that “the Palestinian flag was an orange flag and is not permitted into the stadium.”

I was told I would not be allowed in with it, and that I would have to hand it over to be disposed of, before I would be permitted entrance to see my National Team play.

I didn’t want to have to do that, I asked if I handed it over, could I not retrieve it from them after the match? but they bluntly told me, "it was going in the bin, or I was not coming in."

The whole interaction was bizarre and felt degrading & discriminatory.

Later, as I sat in the stadium deflated by the whole experience, I watched the tennis balls fly over onto the pitch, and the people running across the pitch, and I thought, "why is solidarity prohibited and criminalized?

There is a military occupation and genocide going on in Gaza, but the flags and tennis balls are what we need to worry about!”

Ireland drew, and I never got my flag back."

On Aviva's own website it clearly states in number 9 & 10 of Aviva Stadium Ground Regulations, that it is not permitted to throw any object onto the pitch, it also states that any form of religious or political advertising, banner or slogan are prohibited, but I could not find any mention of National flags, or humanitarian protest, which do not fall under the definition of political advertisement, nor banner nor slogan.

Aviva Stadium Ground Regulations

9. Any form of religious or political advertising, banner or slogan is strictly prohibited and may result in ejection from the Stadium.

10. Under no circumstances is it permitted to throw any object onto the pitch. Unauthorised persons are not permitted to enter onto the field of play and shall be ejected.

Stop The Game Activists, individual protestors and fans such as Seán, care little about the disdain shown to them by the FAI or corporate run stadiums like Aviva, but they do care about the disdain shown by these powerful bodies to the victims of genocide in Gaza, especially when these organisations continue to feign political neutrality & market themselves as anti-racist whilst simultaneously facilitating the whitewashing of apartheid, genocide & war crimes committed by Israel, in continuing to allow Israel to participate at all levels, with no imposed sanctions.

Which has become a glaring hypocrisy of astounding measure for the FAI given their precedence of a blanket refusal to play against Russian teams at any level, aligning with international sporting sanctions by UEFA and FIFA imposed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Russian & Ukraine conflict is still ongoing, innocent civilians are still being displaced and killed on both sides as a result of military actions.

In Palestine, in a shorter space of time the casualties have been considerably higher and also there are still innocent civilians being displaced and killed as a result of military actions.

We do not negate the pain or suffering of Ukrainians or any other victims of military aggression & wars by discussing Palestine's suffering and comparative treatment by the World's politics, international Justice systems, or any International or National body.

So why do bodies such as the FAI, UEFA or FIFA fail to equally recognise, or value the victims in Palestine as they have for Ukraine?

Why have the FAI not refused to play Israel as they have Russia?

Why have UEFA not imposed sanctions on Israel as they did with Russia?

Are innocent civilians murdered in Palestine not comparable to the innocent civilians murdered in Ukraine, are they not as worthy for equal recognition and support?

While we are still awaiting the answers to these basic credible questions, any disdain or outrage needs to be directed in the only justifiably direction that of the UEFA, FIFA and the FAI who have put professional International players in this hypocritical immoral stance.

Stop The Game activists, individual protestors, & fans like Seán, will persist to highlight and protest the hypocrisy of Football & Sporting federations in their continued whitewashing of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestine.

Drawing attention to genocide or humanitarian crisis is a far cry from political advertising, it is the legitimate moral duty of all.

You can support the ‘Stop The Game Campaign’ here https://stopthegame.ie/