Fan storms England football match to raise Sudanese flag
Sudanese flag is waved before football fan is marched off pitch (Photo: Centre Goals)
A football fan ran onto the pitch waving a Sudanese flag during Luton Town’s match against Liverpool on Sunday, just after the game’s opening goal was scored.
According to a Facebook post by Sudan Sports, the “Sudanese fan in England aroused the feelings of many Arab and Islamic countries by storming a match in the Premier League.”
“He raised the Sudanese flag before stadium security intervened and grabbed the Sudanese fan to return him to his place in the stands.”
A YouTube video showed fans cheering on the football fan before he was tackled by security and escorted from the pitch, apparently assuming that he was flying the Palestinian flag. The Sudanese flag is very easily mistaken for a Palestinian flag as they are so similar in colour and design.
Before the match, “a small gathering of people outside Luton train station were chanting in support of Palestine,” reported The Independent newspaper.
The Premier League opted to ban displays of support through flags and banners for both Israel and Palestine amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, with clubs told not to allow them inside stadiums several weeks ago.
The English Football Association is moving to increase clarity for clubs after Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury deleted a post on X (formerly Twitter) using the phrase “from the river to the sea” alongside a Palestinian flag.
Anwar El Ghazi’s contract at German club Mainz was cancelled after the player posted a message on social media about the conflict. “The loss of my livelihood is nothing when compared to the hell being unleashed on the innocent and vulnerable in Gaza,” responded El Ghazi on X.
Showing power in numbers, Celtic fans waved Palestinian flags in solidarity before a Champions League match with Athletico Madrid on October 25, despite the club urging them not to.
On October 18, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry called on Arab and Islamic countries and the international community “to take urgent international measures to protect the Palestinian people and stop the war of genocide against them.” Representatives of the Arab and Islamic world have largely condemned Israel, while Western voices have been more hesitant.
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