Pro-Palestinian protester chains himself to goal to delay kick-off of Scotland-Israel match

“Carton rouge pour Israël” sur le tee-shirt du militant enchaîné sur la pelouse de Glasgow. MAXPPP – Jane Barlow

Un jeune homme a déjoué le dispositif de sécurité, à Glasgow,  lors d'un match de qualification de l'Euro féminin pourtant disputé à huis clos en raison des risques de perturbation.

A protester wearing a “Red Card for Israel” T-shirt tied himself to a goalpost in Glasgow on Friday ahead of Scotland's Euro 2025 women's qualifier against Israel, which is being played behind closed doors, pushing back kick-off by half an hour.

The man wearing a black T-shirt reading “Red Card For Israel” attached himself to one of the goals with a chain with a padlock, after having thwarted the important security device that had nevertheless been implemented.

Thirty minutes late

The kick-off was finally given around thirty minutes late than the initially planned time. The Scottish Federation had decided to play this match in Glasgow without spectators due to "the risk of disruption", against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrations in front of the stadium

Dozens of protesters gathered outside Hampden Park before the meeting, carrying Palestinian flags. The war in the Palestinian territory was sparked by the bloody attack by commandos of the Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. More than 1,189 deaths, mostly civilians, occurred there. were killed according to a count based on official Israeli figures.

And of the 252 people taken as hostages during the attack, 121 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 37 are dead, according to the army. In response, the army besieged the Gaza Strip and launched a campaign of bombings by air, land and sea followed on October 27 by a ground offensive, which has until now more than 36,280 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.