PSG ‘Free Palestine’ banner has no place in football — French minister

A gigantic banner proclaiming “Free Palestine,” unfurled by Paris Saint-Germain supporters at a Champions League match, has no place in a football stadium, according to France’s interior minister.

The massive banner covered an entire section of the stadium at PSG’s home ground, Parc des Princes, in Paris on Wednesday night, before their defeat to Spanish side Atletico Madrid.

Along with the slogan “Free Palestine,” the banner displayed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a man wearing a keffiyeh scarf covering his face except for his eyes, the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and a young boy wrapped in the Lebanese flag.

This display comes amid Israel’s ongoing military operations against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with international concern growing over civilian casualties.

“This banner had no place in this stadium,” said right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on X.

“I ask PSG to explain itself and for clubs to ensure that politics does not damage sport, which must always remain a source of unity,” he said. “If this were to happen again, we will have to consider forbidding banners for clubs that do not enforce the rules,” he added.

Othman Nasrou, the junior minister responsible for fighting discrimination, has summoned French Football Federation president Philippe Diallo and PSG director Victoriano Melero for talks on Friday morning at the interior ministry over the incident. His office stated that given the size of the banner, its installation could not have escaped the club’s notice.

‘Scandalous’ Support
However, the banner found support from France’s hard-left, with Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, arguing that
“messages of peace have their place in a football stadium.”

“This criminalisation of support for the Palestinian and Lebanese people is scandalous and must stop immediately,” he wrote on X.

The banner, displayed by the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP), was shown above another slogan reading: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.”
CUP denied the banner conveyed “a message of hatred,” instead describing it as “a call for peace.”

“The message that accompanied it is explicit and is a call for peace between peoples,” CUP said in a statement on X.

Meanwhile, PSG stated they were unaware of CUP’s intentions to display the banner. “The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message,” PSG said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “PSG emphasises that Parc des Princes is – and must remain – a place of communion around a shared passion for football and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in the stadium.”

‘A Call to Hatred’

The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, Yonathan Arfi, described the banner as “scandalous,” noting that it depicted “a masked Palestinian fighter” and showed “a map where the State of Israel no longer exists” in an image of the Palestinian keffiyeh.

“This is not a message of peace but a call to hatred,” he said.

Not Considered Insulting

Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which started the war in Gaza, resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, the majority of whom were civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

European football body UEFA stated that it would not initiate any proceedings against PSG for the banner, with a spokesperson saying “it cannot be considered provocative or insulting in this specific case.”

UEFA does not ban all political proclamations in football stadiums but only those deemed “provocative” or offensive, such as homophobic banners and chants.