Warsaw football team may face probe over 'provocative' banner: report
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
04.08.2017 13:40
UEFA is likely to investigate the Legia Warsaw football team after fans hung a “provocative” anti-Nazi banner at a Champions League game, according to UK media reports.
Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
The banner showed a Nazi officer pointing a gun to a child's head, while a caption read: “During the Warsaw Uprising Germans killed 160,000 people. Thousands of them were children”.
It was displayed on Wednesday before Legia Warsaw played FC Astana. Legia ultimately dropped out of the Champions League competition after the match. The Warsaw team beat FC Astana 1:0 but had lost an earlier game 1:3.
The banner and a minute's silence marked Tuesday's 73rd anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising, an ultimately failed attempt to liberate the Polish capital from more numerous and better equipped Nazi German occupying forces.
The Scottish Sun, Britain's Daily Mail and the Irish Independent portal said that UEFA is likely to investigate Legia over the banner.
Britain's “Daily Record” called the banner “striking”, German sports portal sport1.de called it “shocking” and the Belgian 7sur7 website said it was “chilling”.
Legia fans have been in trouble with UEFA, European football's governing body, before.
They were locked out of a 3:3 match against Real Madrid – one of the Warsaw team's best ever results – after attacking security with pepper spray last season, and have been hit with fines for racist and antisemitic chants during home games. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP