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Scotland’s Celtic FC Could Be Fined by European Governing Body of Soccer After Fans Unveil Anti-Israel Banner
Celtic FC fans raising an anti-Israel banner at a Celtic FC vs. Bayern Munich match on Feb. 12, 2025 in Celtic Park. Photo: Screenshot
Scotland’s Celtic Football Club could potentially face a fine from the UEFA, Europe’s governing body of soccer, after its fans displayed a massive anti-Israel banner during the first leg of a Champions League knockout phase play-off on Wednesday night.
While the Scottish team competed against Bayern Munich on the field at Celtic Park in Glasgow, Celtic FC’s ultra-fan group Green Brigade organized in the stands a giant tifo display that said “Show ‘Israel’ The Red Card,” which calls on the UEFA and FIFA to suspend Israel from all soccer competitions. The word “Israel” was notably in quotation marks on the banner, and the letters were designed to look like they were dripping in blood. The display was unveiled at halftime and was raised by the Celtic fans throughout the game’s second half. A Palestinian flag was also waved in the stands.
In the seats below the banner, members of the Green Brigade held up red sheets of paper that said the same message as the banner. In another message printed on the red papers, Green Brigade accused Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid in its treatment of Palestinians. “‘Israel’ is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing; it is practicing apartheid; and it is illegally occupying Palestinian territory,” the sign read, before making a series of false accusations about Israel murdering Palestinian soccer players and preventing soccer “and other sports from being played across all of Palestine.”
“These crimes have no place in our beautiful game,” the message read. It was signed by the Green Brigade. The Celtics ultimately lost the game to Bayern Munich 2-1.
Celtic FC has faced numerous fines in the past from the UEFA because of its fans. It was fined when fans threw a smoke bomb on the pitch in January and after fans displayed “provocative messages of an offensive nature” during a Champions League match against Atletico Madrid last season. It received fines related to anti-monarchy banners raised by fans during two separate matches in 2022, and has also been fined when fans threw objects on the field, displayed Palestinian flags when the team competed against the Israeli team Hapoel Beer Sheva. They have been additionally penalized by the UEFA for “illicit banners,” such as one in 2019 that depicted former Italian leader Benito Mussolini hanging upside down.
Before the start of Wednesday’s game, the Green Brigade released a statement, asking Celtic fans to arrive early to help organize participation for a tifo that would “set the tone for what could be a memorable and historic night at Celtic Park.”
“We kindly ask those in the north curve area of the stadium to arrive at their seats early in advance as the success of the tifo depends on your participation,” the group said. “The entire Celtic support has a huge part to play before and during the match tonight. It is important we get behind the team from first whistle to last, whilst making it as uncomfortable and unpleasant as possible for our rivals.”
The Green Brigade was formed in 2006, and according to its website, the group has “always maintained a left-leaning reputation: racism and discrimination would not be tolerated and you’d often see shows of solidarity with causes from Ireland to Palestine.” The group added on its website that its ethos has not always been in line with that of the Celtic FC: “The Group’s clearly stubborn and somewhat militant nature, coupled with its unashamedly political aspect would cause conflict with the Club and other authorities. Such problems still exist to this day.” The Green Brigade internationally supports a Palestinian soccer academy from the Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank.
Israeli forward Liel Abada left Celtic FC last year, even though he had two years left to his contract. At the time, he did not explain his exact reason for leaving the Glasgow team, but said leaving Celtic “wasn’t in my plans” and that he had a “very, very difficult time in Scotland.” It was reported that he faced pressure from Israelis to stop playing for the Celtics because its fans regularly raise banners that read “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the resistance.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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