Ukraine’s FA has called on Uefa to investigate footage of a Manchester City fan at the Champions League final in Istanbul who appears to have been hit by an official trying to confiscate the Ukrainian flag he had brought to the stadium.
Yaakov Kris, 30, who lives in Israel but who is originally from Odesa in southern Ukraine, filmed his altercation with two men on the perimeter of the pitch as they attempted to wrestle the flag from him.
At one point, an official wearing Uefa accreditation and Turkish football federation branded clothing, hit Kris, a business analyst, on his hand. The man also tried to grab Kris’s phone while he was filming the incident.
It is unclear why the officials were trying to remove the Ukrainian flag from the stadium. A number of other national flags were clearly visible within the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, including those of Croatia, Ecuador and Tunisia.
Yuriy Zapisotskiy, general secretary of the Ukrainian FA, said the City fan did not appear to be in breach of any rules and that Kyiv had sought an explanation from Uefa.
He said: “We have already sent in a request for clarification and estimation of the situation and whether there was any breach of Uefa rules by the fan. We are quite sensitive to these things. There has been no response so far.”
A Uefa spokesman said the incident on Saturday evening was “unfortunate” and that there was no prohibition on national flags at the game.
He said: “First of all, please be informed that security inside the stadium is under the responsibility of the local organisers and the local police.
“It was an unfortunate individual initiative from one of the local Turkish police security officers to remove the flag. When the Turkish police match commander was informed, he immediately asked for the flag to be returned to the fan, which you can see happening within seconds if you have access to the full video.
“Please note that Uefa does not prohibit the display of Ukrainian flags at stadiums and indeed has actively displayed messages encouraging peace in all of its games since the outbreak of the war.”
Kris, who was wearing a sky blue Manchester City shirt and is an official member of the premier league club, had arrived at the match four hours ahead of kick-off and had unfurled his flag within the fan zone outside the stadium without incident.
He said: “An hour and a half before the game started, I went to the stands and attached the flag of Ukraine. No one said anything to me either. I asked a policeman to take a picture of me with the flag of Ukraine and he did. But 10 minutes later, a man in a suit with a sign of the Turkish Football Association came and told me to take the flag down.
“I asked him why it was not possible to hang the flag of Ukraine when there were already flags of Tunisia, Albania, Kazakhstan, and Palestine hanging in the stadium. These are just the flags I saw that evening in the stands. But I was not given an explanation.
“They took my flag away from me. I asked for it back and they gave it to me. I started to put it back on the stand because they didn’t explain to me why it was forbidden.
“But the stadium workers began to tear the flag out of my hands, they hit me on the arms. I filmed it all on video. They demanded that I turn off the video, but I did not. Then they demanded that I delete the video from my phone.
“Then they asked me if I smoked. I said no. They wanted me to go outside the stadium with them, but did not explain where. I refused. I said I would not delete the video. A few minutes later, Manchester City fans came up to me and protected me. They took me to their fan stand and I spent the entire match with them.”
City won the final against the Italian club Internazionale of Milan after scoring the only goal in the 68th minute.
The behaviour of the officials has caused an uproar in Ukraine, where local media reported it as a scandal and fans expressed their anger on social media.
In February, Uefa was accused of bearing “primary responsibility” for the catastrophic organisational and safety failures of last season’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Paris.
French police used teargas and pepper spray on fans as huge numbers of people were crushed together. Uefa, the French police and government ministers had claimed without any basis in fact that the problem had been the fault of thousands of Liverpool fans arriving without valid tickets.
The Turkish football federation did not provide any response to a request for comment.
