Top 5 fan protests against UEFA
On Tuesday night, when Spartak Moscow were playing against Liverpool in their Champions League clash, the fans of the former unfurled an anti-UEFA banner which read “UEFA mafia”. The fans also used smoke grenades during their club’s 1-1 home draw against the English club.
UEFA charged Spartak for “illicit banner and chants”. The fan protests were staged after UEFA ruled that Spartak’s fans will not be allowed to attend the club’s away game against Sevilla on November 1. The governing body also fined the club with €60,000 ($72,000).
Spartak Moscow’s supporters are not the only set of fans to express their resentment against UEFA, however. Here is a look at incidents in the past when fans of a team have shown their dissent against UEFA.
1) Lech Poznan
On September 17, 2015, fans of Polish club Lech Poznan carried out their threat to boycott the club’s Europa League tie against Portuguese club Belenenses.
The boycott was in protest of UEFA’s decision to donate €1 from each ticket sold to the cause of refugees.
The game, which in any case was a goalless drab draw, was played in front of a crowd of around 3,000 at the Inea Stadium. The club’s average attendance at the same venue was 20,054 in the previous season. A banner reading “Stop Islamization” was hung at one of the entrances.
The boycott had been planned in advance and was announced by one of the team’s ultras societies. A banner at a previous home game read: "This is obvious and simple for us, we do not want refugees in Poland."