Monday, the day before the match, the Galatasaray supporters presented themselves in number in the middle of the night in front of the Liverpool hotel to organize a noisy and festive fireworks. The objective was then to prevent the players of the English club from sleeping quietly before the duel in the football champions league. The next day, Tuesday evening, the message was quite different. More serious. More serious.
In a closed and boiling countertop stadium, Turkish supporters took advantage of the meeting to display their support for the Palestinian people victim of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Many banners were thus deployed in the spans of Rams Park. Unequivocal messages. “Genocide in Palestine”, “Let the babies live in Gaza”, “release Palestine” or even “If Jerusalem is not free, the world is captive” could be read to the four corners of the enclosure.
The banners remained visible the whole match and, on Canal +, which broadcast the meeting in France, they were translated for journalists.
The conflict to the Middle East is increasingly invited in the world of sport. During the last edition of the Vuelta, the Tour of Spain of Cycling, many pro-Palestine events had disrupted the race and cause the cancellation of certain stages.
In the aftermath of the chaotic end of this Vuelta, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had suggested excluding Israel from sports competitions “as long as barbarism continues” in Gaza. Words made by many other political leaders.
Many sports federations have also requested the exclusion of national teams and Israeli clubs for European and global competitions as in the Euroleague, the prestigious competition of basketball clubs on the old continent.
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