“Rainbow-gate” at the Munich stadium: UEFA takes a red card

UEFA has decided. The European football body finally refused, Tuesday, June 22, the project of the city of Munich to light up its stadium in the rainbow colors of the LGBT community for the Euro Germany-Hungary match on Wednesday in 9 p.m., to protest against a law deemed discriminatory recently passed in Hungary.

“By its statutes, UEFA is a politically and religiously neutral organization,” said the European confederation in a press release. “Given the political context of this request – a message aimed at a decision taken by the Hungarian national parliament – UEFA must refuse this request,” she added.

In essence: UEFA claims to fully share the values ​​of tolerance promoted by this initiative, but as a “politically and religiously neutral organization”, it cannot accept to convey a message aimed specifically at a country or a government.

To demonstrate its good faith, the European body proposes to illuminate the stadium in rainbow colors either on June 28 or in early July, to coincide with events linked to the Pride March in Munich.

“Send a clear signal to Hungary and to the world”

But this negative response is not to the liking of LGBT rights defenders. UEFA has come under fire from critics ever since. “With this decision, UEFA is not going to improve its popularity rating, which has already deteriorated enough in Germany. National politicians of all stripes or almost, associations, football clubs, all are now sending a red card to the ‘European football body “, underlines Luc André, France 24 correspondent in Germany.

“UEFA has not understood the signs of our times, and it is easy to see which side they are on, with their decision,” tackled the spokesman for the German LGBT Federation, Markus Ulrich.

“The developments in Hungary are frightening, it is all the more important to send a signal”, also said FC Cologne boss Alexander Wehrle. Greens candidate for chancellery Annalena Baerbock called on all of Germany to show off the rainbow on Wednesday.

The municipality of Munich is also going to decorate several buildings in the city in rainbow colors after the “shameful” decision of UEFA to ban the lighting of its stadium. “We in Munich will in no way be prevented from sending a clear signal to Hungary and to the world” about discrimination against homosexuals, Mayor Dieter Reiter told reporters, announcing that the Town hall, or a tower and a wind turbine located near the Allianz Arena stadium would be decorated with rainbow flags.

Outside of Germany, Gary Lineker, the former glory of English football whose voice carries Europe, immediately tweeted: “Do it Munich, do it. Turn on the light so the world can see.”

In France, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, also said he “regretted” UEFA’s refusal to allow the Munich stadium to be illuminated. “I think it would have been a very strong symbol,” he told AFP. “We are beyond a political message, it is a message of deep values,” he said on his arrival at a meeting with his European counterparts in Luxembourg.

Flags for spectators

The stadium which belongs to Bayern Munich, may still be in the colors of the rainbow on Wednesday: the organizers of the Munich Pride March, associated with Amnesty International, plan to distribute 11,000 flags to spectators (only 14,000 places will be occupied, due to restrictions due to Covid-19). “To see them floating en masse in the Allianz Arena would be a snub to UEFA and to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is due to attend the match in Munich,” said our journalist Luc André.

Other solidarity initiatives are flourishing: the private German channel ProSieben has decided to dress its logo in rainbow colors. Football clubs in Frankfurt and Cologne have also announced that they will light up their own stadiums in the evening in these colors.

Save Hungary

Hungarian law provides that “pornography and content that depicts sexuality or promotes gender identity deviation, sex reassignment and homosexuality must not be accessible to those under the age of 18”.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto rejected European criticism and denounced “fake news”. He claimed that this law “was not directed against any community in Hungary (but) only against pedophiles”. “This law does not say anything about the sexual orientation of adults. It only says that as long as children are under 18, their sex education is exclusively the responsibility of their parents, that is all,” he said, adding that the vote in the Hungarian Parliament was “a national competence which should not be called into question”.

The minister praised the “common sense” of the leaders of European football who refused the illumination of the Munich stadium. This “would have been a political provocation towards Hungary,” he said.

But the reason is perhaps more pragmatic, as Luc André underlines: “UEFA obviously seeks to spare it in defiance of the values ​​displayed in the communication campaigns. Due to health restrictions, UEFA could indeed move the London Euro final in Budapest and she needs Viktor Orban’s support for that “.

For now, the final is to be held at Wembley Stadium. UEFA have said they have no plans to replace him with another venue, but the pressure is mounting. The President of the Italian Council, Mario Draghi, has asked that this match not be played in England due to the increase in the number of cases of contaminations linked to the Delta variant, which appeared for the first time in India. “Our health is a priority. The spread of the Delta variant does not allow the 40,000 spectators to attend the final in the London stadium,” Peter Liese, in charge of health issues within the Party, also said in a statement Tuesday. Popular European (PPE), first group in the European Parliament.

With AFP and Reuters