STFC Flag Confiscated

[GarySTFC]

Horsham Rebel is at the Russia vs Sweden game and had hung out his STFC St. Georges flag at the ground only to have it confisctated by UEFA officials for having a club name on the front of it!

[A Rebel and a Saint]

That sounds really harsh, these officials obviously have never been to an England game before then?

[Reading Rebel]

Thats the problem with having a tournament like the Euros in countries where football comes a poor third to silly sports like Skiing or Toboggoning.

[Matt]

What would they have done if England had qualified? Most English fans with flags have the name of their club on them - you see thousands at matches.

[Sue]

Apparently Gary got his flag back after the game and the reason they took it was because they did'nt realise it was an FC. They thought it was a curse against Innsbruck and were not going to allow it to be shown on TV!!!!.

 

 

[brighton_rebel]

I heard they took it because Gary was drunk and hitting people with it!

[Barry Scott]

Originally Posted By: Sue

Apparently Gary got his flag back after the game and the reason they took it was because they did'nt realise it was an FC. They thought it was a curse against Innsbruck and were not going to allow it to be shown on TV!!!!.

funnily enough, I had a feeling it might have been confiscated due to officials thinking it was an obscure swear word

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Did it have anything to do with him singing to the Austians -

 

"wheres your daughter?, wheres your daughter, wheres your daughter mister fritz? - you aint got one, shes in the cellar, wheres your daughter mister fritz?"!

[GlenW]

ah the master of poor taste

[HorshamRebel]

When they confiscated the flag they said that it was because of the writing on it, and that was all that was said. No explinations at all, and they were not interested in the fact that it was just a football club.

 

I was told to collect it from the main steward building. When I got it back one of the stewards wanted to see the flag to see why it was taken away. When he saw the writing he said he remebered the convestion between the head stewards on the radio.

 

As Sue said, the thought the flag was cursing Inssbruck, as they had only the dictionary meaning to go on.

 

The funny thing is, that the main promotion for Uefa in this tounament is "Respect to ALL in football".

 

What was also quite funny was, as I was walking around Innsbruck after the match, with it around my neck, whilst finding a taxi, some Russians who had seen it recognised it as a Slough flag.

 

For those of you who didn't see the flag on TV, which will be all of you, here's a photo of the offending item.

 

 

 

 

[HorshamRebel]

I've just posted the flag photo on the official UEFA fanzone site (along with a few others). So far it has not been removed.

 

[HorshamRebel]

I've added a few of my photos to the BBC Euro 2008 photo site (including the flag shot)

 

Feel free to go on there and make a few comments