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On Tuesday night, when Spartak Moscow were playing against Liverpool in their Champions League clash, the fans of the former unfurled an anti-UEFA banner which read “UEFA mafia”. The fans also used smoke grenades during their club’s 1-1 home draw against the English club.
UEFA charged Spartak for “illicit banner and chants”. The fan protests were staged after UEFA ruled that Spartak’s fans will not be allowed to attend the club’s away game against Sevilla on November 1. The governing body also fined the club with €60,000 ($72,000).
Spartak Moscow’s supporters are not the only set of fans to express their resentment against UEFA, however. Here is a look at incidents in the past when fans of a team have shown their dissent against UEFA.
1) Lech Poznan
On September 17, 2015, fans of Polish club Lech Poznan carried out their threat to boycott the club’s Europa League tie against Portuguese club Belenenses.
The boycott was in protest of UEFA’s decision to donate €1 from each ticket sold to the cause of refugees.
The game, which in any case was a goalless drab draw, was played in front of a crowd of around 3,000 at the Inea Stadium. The club’s average attendance at the same venue was 20,054 in the previous season. A banner reading “Stop Islamization” was hung at one of the entrances.
The boycott had been planned in advance and was announced by one of the team’s ultras societies. A banner at a previous home game read: "This is obvious and simple for us, we do not want refugees in Poland."
2) FC Copenhagen
On November 23, 2016, fans of Danish club FC Copenhagen unfurled an anti-UEFA banner during their Champions League group stage match against Porto which ended in a goalless draw.
The banner showed officials from Chelsea, PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus sitting around a table along with a message that read: "Fair play a respect for all clubs in Europe – Not only UEFA’s chosen few."
The protest was in response to UEFA rule changes which makes it tougher for FC Copenhagen – and other sides from ‘lesser’ leagues – to qualify for Champions League tournament from 2018/19.
Preference is being given to England, Italy, Spain and Germany, who will automatically have four teams that will qualify for the competition. The top four clubs from the four top-ranked national associations will automatically qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League under the new rules.
3) Bayern Munich
On December 6, 2016, at the final group stage game of Bayern Munich against Atletico Madrid, the fan group Bayern ultras put up ant-UEFA banner that read: "Union for Empowering Financially strong clubs to Abolish competition."
The sign referred to the changes that UEFA had made to the Champions League format. As mentioned earlier, the change guaranteed Champions League spots to the top four clubs in the top four leagues, reducing the number of spots available for everyone else.
The fans holding the banner were trying to show that UEFA’s rules were making sure that most of the money that could be made from playing Champions League stays with the wealthiest clubs who regularly advance to the knock-out stages of Champions League. It doesn’t give much opportunity to clubs that do not belong to that small elite group.
Perhaps, the Bayern ultras were seeking a more level playing field for the not so well-off clubs.
4) Manchester City
Whenever City players assemble on the pitch ahead of their Champions League clash and the UEFA Champions League anthem rings out, City fans drown out the anthem in their collective ‘Boo’.
City’s fans relationship with UEFA has soured over the years. It all started in 2012 when then City forward Mario Balotelli was racially abused by Porto fans in a UEFA Europa League encounter in Porto. Porto were fined a paltry sum of €20,000 by Uefa. The next month when City were pitted against another Portugal club, Sporting Lisbon, City were fined €30,000 for being just 30 seconds late to get back on the pitch in the second half. This upset City's fans and sowed the seeds of an uneasy relationship.
But, it was really the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules that hardened City fans’ hatred for UEFA. In 2014, City were hit with a £49million fine along with restrictions on their transfer spending and Champions League squad size.
Matters went out of hand when UEFA decided that City’s game against CSKA Moscow will be played behind closed doors because of continued racial abuse and bad behaviour by supporters of CSKA Moscow. City fans had already bought their flight tickets and booked hotel rooms to attend the game. UEFA refused to listen to their pleas and on the night of the game, CSKA pulled out all stops to make sure the few City fans who had made the trip for the game were not allowed to enter the stadium.
Meanwhile, hundreds of CSKA fans, some drunk, and many wearing colours of their team, were allowed inside the stadium, in full view of the UEFA match delegates. The whole matter passed without any sanction against CSKA Moscow.
UEFA’s actions have continued to rile City fans. In 2016, UEFA did an about-turn on the FFP rules, relaxing the tough guidelines, just as the traditional European powerhouse AC Milan announced that they were receiving Chinese investment.
The new rules were not applicable retrospectively, which meant that the relaxed guidelines were not meant for emerging football powers like City or PSG, but for traditional elites like AC Milan.
City's fans have been having a dim view of UEFA’s decision-making and their discontent is deafening by their deep guttural 'Boos!'.
5) Legia Warsaw
UEFA doesn’t like the idea of political symbolism around the football pitch. On August 3, 2017, Legia fans unveiled an anti-Nazi banner prior to their 1-0 win over Kazakh side Astana in the third qualifying round.
The banner showed a crying child with a Nazi soldier holding a gun to his head and the caption saying: "During the Warsaw Uprising Germans killed 160,000 people. Thousands of them were children."
Following this, UEFA fined the Polish club with €35,000. However, this did not make Legia’s fans back down. On the next occasion – UEFA Europa League qualification tie against Moldovan club Sheriff – Legia fans unfurled a banner of a huge pig. Besides the pig, the artwork included a UEFA sign, a bowl of Legia Warsaw badges and the words "and the €35,000 fine goes to..." Not to mention, the incredible flare display put up by the supporters that lighted up the night.
