A homophobic banner brandished by Bayern Munich fans at the team’s Champions League with Arsenal will likely lead UEFA to take disciplinary action against the club.
The banner, which depicted a half-naked Mesut Ozil bending over in front of a cannon with the words ‘GAY GUNNERS’ emblazoned across the top of it, was shown during the 1-1 draw between the two teams at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening.
UEFA’s chief of press Pedro Pinto posted about the incident on Twitter, saying: “UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Bayern Munich for an offensive banner at last night’s UCL game against Arsenal.”
However, he later revealed that UEFA is actually entering disciplinary proceedings regarding an allegedly offensive Kosovo banner which was held up by fans in the game, and later clarified whether or not UEFA would be addressing the homophobic banner by saying: “Regarding other banner regarding insult against Arsenal, UEFA has received report from FARE and will communicate shortly.”
Hopefully by “communicate” Mr Pinto actually means “take disciplinary action”, instead of simply ignoring these homophobic fans perpetuating the idea that football is an exclusionary sport by, y’know, being exclusionary. UEFA and the FA have already made dismal attempts to “Kick Racism Out Of Football”, so let’s hope that they aren’t as awful at dealing with other prejudices, too.
Photo: Getty Images
