United chairman to meet with fan over ‘abortion’ banner
The chairman of Galway United is due to meet today with a supporter who was ejected from Eamonn Deacy Park over the waving of a flag with the words ‘Repeal the 8th’.
The supporter was removed from the ground in the second-half of Galway United’s home game last Friday with Derry City, after refusing to give a guarantee that he would not display the flag.
According to the club, the flag contravenes football ground regulations set by Europe’s governing body, UEFA, that flags cannot display political or religious messages.
The reference on the flag is to the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which when signed into law in 1983, introduced a constitutional ban on abortion by recognising the right to life of an unborn child.
The club said that after it received two written complaints about the flag, the man was approached at the home game against Sligo Rovers on Sunday, May 29, and asked to remove the flag, but he refused to do so.
When he was approached again last Friday, he refused to give a guarantee he would not display the flag, and was escorted to the administration area at the back of the stand, where he was told he was being removed from the ground, and would not be allowed to return for future games unless he gave a guarantee that he would not erect the flag.
Since then, a group of Galway United supporters have vowed to boycott the club’s games until the man is allowed to return to the ground, but Club Chairman Jonathan Corbett said for that to happen, the club needs a guarantee that religious or political flags won’t be flown at games, as the club cannot afford the level of fine Dundalk FC was hit with two years ago.
The Louth club was landed with an €18,000 fine by UEFA in 2014 after a Palestinian flag was flown by home fans at their Europa League qualifier in Oriel Park with Hajduk Split, which UEFA said was in breach of its rules.
“The last thing we want to be doing is banning fans. Attendances are down right across the board, and we obviously want everyone behind us supporting the team, but the simple fact is the flag is in contravention of ground regulations,” said Mr Corbett.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune