Euro 2020: UEFA allows Dutch fans to bring rainbow flags into Hungary stadium
Sunday, 27 June 2021 (22:23 IST)
UEFA said it allowed Dutch fans to bring rainbow flags into the Puskas Arena in Budapest on Sunday, where the Netherlands were set to play the Czech Republic in the Euro 2020 last-16.
European football's governing body denied previous reports in the Netherlands that it had asked security guards to confiscate rainbow flags from fans entering the fan zone outside the stadium.
UEFA said the flags were "not political and in line with the organization's #EqualGame campaign."
A spokesman for the Netherland's football association (KNVB) confirmed that fans were having their rainbow flags confiscated outside the stadium in the Hungarian capital.
"UEFA rules apply in the fan zone and in the stadium, so they can decide that," the KNVB spokesman told TV station NOS. "But that doesn't mean that the KNVB supports the decision. We are for the rainbow flag, and that's why we started the OneLove campaign."
What are the fans protesting?
Dutch fans brought rainbow flags in protest against a recent law passed by the Hungarian parliament which has been criticized as anti-LGBTQ.
The new law bans showing content about LGBT issues to minors. The Hungarian government under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban says it is aimed at protecting children but critics say it conflates homosexuality with pedophilia.
Fans in Germany also brought rainbow flags and dressed in rainbow clothing for their nation's final group stage game against Hungary in Munich.
The German fans' campaign came in the wake of UEFA's decision to deny a request from Munich's city council to light the city's stadium in rainbow colors. UEFA justified the decision by saying that the council's request came on political grounds.
Several stadiums and other buildings around Germany lit up in rainbow colors in protest of UEFA's decision.
Some Hungarian supporters however, members of the far-right "Carpathian Brigade" ultra group, displayed explicitly homophobic banners during the game in Munich.
