UEFA has unfurled a banner with the message “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” on the pitch before the Super Cup football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham in Udine, Italy, in the wake of heavy fallout over its meek tribute to a Palestinian player killed by Israel.
“The message is loud and clear,” European football’s governing body said in a post on X om Wednesday. “A banner. A call.”
Nine children refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq carried the banner onto the field of play before the game began.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah last week criticised a UEFA tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his killing.
The Palestine Football Association said al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a brief post on X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.
Salah responded, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Speaking to Al Jazeera last week, Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, said he did not expect the football body to respond to the criticism.
“UEFA have not issued a follow-up, and frankly, I’d be surprised if they do,” he said, citing the “complete silence” of football and players’ bodies since the start of the war on Gaza.
Even UEFA’s tribute to al-Obeid “was a bit of a surprise”, Mikdadi said.
“Suleiman al-Obeid is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide – there’s been over 400 – but he’s by far the most prominent as of now.”
Salah, one of the Premier League’s biggest stars, has advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.
But some responding to Salah’s post asked why it had taken the 33-year-old Egyptian so long to weigh in on Israel’s genocidal war.
The banner move came a day after the UEFA Foundation for Children announced its latest initiative to help children affected by war in different parts of the world – a partnership with Medecins du Monde, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF), and Handicap International.
They are charities “providing vital humanitarian help for the children of Gaza,” UEFA said in a news release on Tuesday.
UEFA has supported projects regarding children affected in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.
