Apolitical or selectively silent?

The problem that the Champions League Final will present to football’s governing bodies.

On the 25th of February 2022, Wembley Stadium's arch was lit up in blue and yellow in support of Ukraine.

This followed the Russian invasion that commenced the day before, and in the days and months that followed, the English football world showed its staunch support for their European counterparts. England’s National Team posed behind a blue and yellow flag with ‘peace’ emblazoned across it, along with the Ukraine National Team before a European Championships qualifier at Wembley. The Premier League dedicated a weekend if games to the conflict – where every team issued their own message to the country – in an initiative promoted by the Premier League on their social media channels**. Roman Abramovich, a Russian Oligarch, was forced to sell Chelsea Football Club after nineteen years of ownership following pressure from the UK Government***.

In short – football in England presented a united front. Everyone agreed that what was happening in Ukraine was a bad thing. Everyone reacted accordingly.

On the 23rd of November 2023, a source at England’s Football Association told Reuters that the arch would be unlikely to light up in support of social and political causes in the future ****. The FA had come under pressure to light up the arch in support of Israel following the October 7th attack, where around 1200 people were killed by Hamas fighters in an attack on Israeli towns near the Gaza strip. Lucy Frazer, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport criticized the lack of action by the FA, who instead opted to hold a minute’s silence before the friendly between England and Australia at Wembley on October 13th, where players also wore black armbands as a tribute to those affected by the conflict. A neutral statement where victims on both sides were acknowledged was also read.

Frazer’s statement was a clear one-

“ I am extremely disappointed by the FA's decision not to light up the Wembley Stadium arch following last weekend's horrific terrorist attacks in Israel and have made my views clear to the FA... It is especially disappointing in light of the FA's bold stance on other terrorist attacks in the recent past. Words and actions matter. The Government is clear: we stand with Israel.”

Whether you agree with Frazer or not, her expectation is based on the assumption that, until recently, seemed obvious. Her disappointment, and by extension the governments’, is only possible if you accept the fact that sport and politics are, and always will be, inextricably linked. The FA made a statement when they lit up the Wembley arch, just like they did when they endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement when it was at its most influential *****. They let the genie out the bottle and, as much as they may want to now, they can’t put it back in. Claiming to be apolitical after demonstrating the willingness to be the opposite on issues that are, let us say ‘less divisive’, is transparent. The silence of football’s governing bodies is telling, but not unexpected. Stefan Szymanski, economist and author of the book Soccernomics, sums up the political objective of football’s governing bodies well:

“Sporting institutions are ‘cheerleaders for the status quo — not daring to challenge any injustice for fear that their empire might crumble’” ******

This protects them from risking alienating supporters and, more important, individuals and countries who hold significant financial power when it comes to their business interests. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has demonstrated its willingness to take decisive action in this pursuit of ‘keeping the political boat steady.’

Celtic, a club with deep Irish ties (a country who supports Palestine and has recently joined Spain and Norway in formally recognising Palestine as a state), have been fined on more than one occasion by UEFA for fans displaying Palestinian flags in UEFA Champions League (UCL) games. Most recently the club was fined $19,000 for a display of Palestinian flags before their UCL clash against Atletico Madrid on October 25th, 2023, with UEFA describing the display as “provocative messages of an offensive nature” in a later statement (1). Celtic have also been fined for displaying the Palestine flag during Champions League Games in 2016 and 2014.

Essentially, UEFA will get the fine book out if it needs to.

This year’s Champions League Final presents a unique headache to the concerned governing bodies.

Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will contest the final on June 1st, at Wembley Stadium, a stadium that has previous when it comes to statements of a political nature. Tensions when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict are even higher than usual, after an Israeli bombing on Rafah, an area that the Israel Defence Forces had designated ‘humanitarian space’, caused a fire that killed 45 in a tent camp of displaced Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident, which resulted in civilians being burned alive, as a “tragic mistake”. The attack occurred after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a dramatic warning for Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah"(3).

In addition to the above, last year’s Champions League Final, contested in Istanbul, experienced some controversy when it came to the display of flags. A Ukrainian Manchester City fan was hit by stadium officials during an attempt to confiscate the Ukrainian flag that he had brought with him to hang in the stand (4). The incident sparked outrage, especially amongst local media and in Ukraine – whose national football association called for a UEFA investigation of the incident. Flag hanging is standard practice in football games and, when questioned, UEFA stated that the security inside the stadium was up to ‘local authorities’, and that they were not responsible for prohibiting the Ukrainian flag inside the stadium.

It stands to reason that, on June 1st, the FA, with input from UEFA, will be responsible for the security inside the stadium during the game. The FA’s tournaments, events and interim stadium director Chris Bryant, has recently talked of a “very good – working relationship” with UEFA, citing having worked with them for the Euro 2020 final as well as the women’s Euros in 2022 as part of the reason for this. The FA has reportedly pumped £5m into upgrading the infrastructures around security and stewarding in preparation for a day that has been described as their ‘biggest security operation’. As part of the investment, they also insist that they have upgraded the training and selection strategies for stewards at Wembley events. *******

Those who will tell you that sport and politics should be or are separate are fooling themselves. Once one has decided they will speak on specific political movements or make specific political statements, to claw back their ‘apolitical status’ is impossible. Once a precedent has been set for action, silence and inaction can no longer be a place that can be returned to. The option to choose which issues one feels most strongly about is always available but, with some of the atrocities that continue to happen around the world, can some of the most powerful governing bodies really be allowed to stand on the sidelines as ‘neutral’?

The expectation of any type of message on the conflict in the Middle East is an unrealistic one. Attention on the ongoing situation between Israel and Palestine is high, and growing, but the likelihood of any mention of it before or after the final is low.

Flags will be coming to the Champions League Final. They’ll be visible to the millions of watchers around the world. Football has a problem on its hands. Banning specific flags will surely betray their intention of staying ‘apolitical’ - but one can’t help but feel like too much white, green, black and red in the stands will be against the desires of the higher ups of the game.

Neutrality and suppression do not go hand in hand.

Millions of eyes will be on the game. On the players. On the crowd. On the FA.

Reports of flag confiscation would be catastrophic. And it wouldn’t be the first time.

Roll on June 1st.