SCOTTISH football's governing body has come under fire after it emerged that only the Scotland and Israel flag will be allowed when the two nations compete at Hampden Park in a crucial Nations League game.
The Scottish FA has warned that other flags will not be allowed with fans being told to avoid taking any other banners with them.
Some fans voiced concerns that meant no Lion Rampant, no Palestinian flags, and no Union Jacks.
The banner guidelines were first announced on social media with SFA stating: “Flags: Fans wishing to bring flags to the match should note that only flags of the two competing nations will be permitted into the stadium.”
But there was a backlash to the announcement.
One fan said: "The SFA are out of control. Forcing their own politics on the Scotland support by attaching poppies to our strips against England and now banning people from flying perfectly legal and inoffensive flags."
Another said: "I’ll be bringing my Palestine flag you fools."
In September, it emerged that a Police Scotland list of flags which could be a criminal offence to display included the Israeli and Palestinian flags – but not the Union Jack or Saltire.
Police Scotland’s list of flags which are potentially criminal to display contains short descriptions of the significance of each flag and references armed struggles and the perceived links to sectarianism.
The Israeli flag is flown by loyalists who “align themselves with Israel due to British support for the state,” according to the document.
Similarly, republicans fly the Palestinian, Basque and Catalan flags to underline “their own desire for independence from Britain”.
If Scotland win on Tuesday, they will qualify for the Group C play-offs and will be promoted to League B. It will also mean that they will be guaranteed a Euro 2020 play-off spot.
Israel have only ever played at Scotland's National Stadium once which was back in 1981. The game was a World Cup qualifier in which two John Robertson penalties and a Davie Provan goal claimed the win for Scotland.
The SFA have been approached for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel