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UEFA allows Dutch fans to bring rainbow flags

June 27, 2021

UEFA said it told Hungarian authorities to allow Netherlands supporters to bring rainbow flags into Budapest's Puskas Arena. Previous reports suggested that security guards were confiscating the flags.

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A Dutch fan holds up a rainbow flag in Budapest's Puskas Arena
A Dutch fan holds up a rainbow flag in Budapest's Puskas ArenaImage: ANP/imago images

UEFA says it allowed Dutch fans to bring rainbow flags into the Puskas Arena in Budapest on Sunday, where the Netherlands were knocked out of Euro 2020 following a 0-2 defeat to the Czech Republic.

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) said that fans had been 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 outside Munich's Allianz Arena wave rainbow flags
Fans outside Munich's Allianz Arena wave rainbow flagsImage: ANDREAS GEBERT/REUTERS

Fans in Germany had 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.

Members of the far-right "Carpathian Brigade" group, apparent supporters of Hungarian, displayed explicitly homophobic banners during the game in Munich.

dv/mf (AP, SID)