Dundalk fined €18,000 by UEFA over Palestinian Flags

dan1895

The lads in the Middle East will have sorted out their differences long before some posters in this thread do.

Paz-CCFC

Intifada wrote: »

I think it's disappointing and scary in equal measure that so many people are happy to settle on "you were told not to do it so don't do it".

I don't think many are. The post you quoted didn't even say "you were told". I said that the fans were "asked". Dundalk FC didn't send in stewards and Gardaí to remove the flags and the people waving them. They asked (and if some are to be believed, actually pleaded with them, at risk of the game being called off). The adult thing to do here would be to think "okay, something's going on here; we don't agree with this, but carrying on what we're doing could have serious repercussions". Then, after the fact, they should have enquired what exactly went on and if they felt that there were underlying prejudicial issues, taken matters further. Waving the flag as some sort of protest against your own club isn't the sensible thing to do. Now, if you're a club like Legia Warsaw, where a €20k fine is a drop in the ocean, go right ahead. But when that equates to the entire gate taken from a match, then you need to realise if this particular course of action is worth it or if the matter can be highlighted through another avenue, without the threat of a massive fine.

Deleted User wrote: »

As Paz succinctly said, the fans said it was political, the UEFA official thought so too, he repeatedly implored that it be removed and it wasn't.

There are presumably other threads and forums where people can get the Israeli conspiracy stuff and thoughts about Apartheid off their chests.

Just for what it's worth, Conor, I don't think that the lack of warnings by UEFA officials to Ajax fans is hugely mitigatory. Dundalk have a much smaller fanbase. It's not that difficult to communicate to a group of about 50 fans in a match where there are only about 2,500. It'd be a bit different trying to reason with tens of thousands of fans. So, for that reason (and the fact that Ajax's Jewish "heritage" is bollocks), I think that they too should face disciplinary action by UEFA. And it should be more than Dundalk (or Dundalk's should be less), on the basis of the Dundalk's much lower resources.

My main point there was that the fans shot themselves in the foot by contacting UEFA and giving public statements. I think that Dundalk stood a good chance of having the fine overturned until this (I believe that there has been one banner brought for years, which features the Irish, Palestinian, Basque flags and one other, so not a response to the particular flaring of the conflict). It's like if you get accused of a serious crime - at that point, it's time to shut up and let your solicitor deal with things, not making public statements which could be used as evidence against you. Likewise, when the fine was publicised, it was time to let Dundalk FC and its professionals to deal with things.

10green bottles

Just to round this thread off.
Dundalks fine was paid,reduced to just €15k on appeal!!
Total fines for the club for year 2014 totaled €21,125 the other €6,125 was leveraged by the FAI for flares and pitch invasions.Quite the whack.

Ronan|Raven

That is a serious amount of cash for any LOI club.

Augmerson

Well how else do you expect Delaney to pay for free booze for the best fans in the world?

Richard Hillman

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

That is a serious amount of cash for any LOI club.

Thats 1 players wages for the season. Huge when they will only have a squad of about 18-20

dan1895

10green bottles wrote: »

Just to round this thread off.
Dundalks fine was paid,reduced to just €15k on appeal!!
Total fines for the club for year 2014 totaled €21,125 the other €6,125 was leveraged by the FAI for flares and pitch invasions.Quite the whack.

Footage of said flares was used in an FAI promotional video.