PSG fans’ ‘Free Palestine’ tifo draws criticism from French minister

The Paris club’s ultras fans unfurl a huge banner in support of Palestine and Lebanon during a Champions League match.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has criticised the unveiling of a giant “Free Palestine” banner by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) football fans before their team’s UEFA Champions League match against Atletico Madrid, saying it is “unacceptable”.

Retailleau said he would “demand explanations” from the club after the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP) hard-core fan group unveiled the banner before kickoff at the Parc des Princes stadium on Wednesday.

“I am not ruling out anything,” Retailleau told Sud Radio on Thursday.

“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.

The incident came eight days before France hosts Israel in Paris in a UEFA Nations League game.

The sprawling tifo – 50 metres wide and 20 metres high, and spread over both tiers of the stands behind the PSG goal – depicted the Palestinian and Lebanese flags with an image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem at its centre.

“War on the pitch, but peace in the world,” a message underneath said.

It also showed the historical map of Palestine.

During the match, the fans unrolled another message that read: “Does a child’s life in Gaza mean less than another?”

“This banner had no place in this stadium,” Retailleau wrote on X.

“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,” he said, adding such actions were banned by both French football and UEFA.

“If this were to happen again, we will have to consider forbidding banners for clubs that do not enforce the rules,” he added.

In a statement after the match, PSG said they had not been aware “of any plans to display such a message”.

“Paris St Germain recalls that the Parc des Princes is – and must remain – a place of communion around a common passion for soccer and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in its stadium,” the club added.

Al Jazeera reached out to PSG after the French minister’s remarks. The club has not responded yet.

Last year, Scottish Premier League club Celtic were fined $19,000 because their fans waved Palestinian flags during a Champions League game after the war in Gaza broke out.

The club’s fans defied earlier bans on flying the Palestinian flag.

“We’re unashamed of and unequivocal of our support for Palestine,” the group told Al Jazeera in November 2023.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians and injured 102,347 since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

In Lebanon, at least 3,050 people have been killed and 13,658 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

France take on Israel at the Stade de France next Thursday, and fans are being allowed into the 80,000-capacity stadium.

Questions have been raised about security surrounding the event in a country that has the largest Jewish community in Europe – and the third in the world, way behind the United States and Israel – as well as the biggest number of Muslims in Europe.

Last month, Paris police officials said the game would “of course be open to the public”.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies