Italy to ban Star of David flags at Tottenham soccer match

1) the ban has not been issued, it's an hoax 2) even if,it would be for the presence of neo-nazi and fascist among Inter's fan (and at large in Milan), not for the "arabs" presence as some ignorant as statedbefore

So I take it no flags will be allowed in of any country.

Good riddance! Boycott Apartheid Italy !

"Barcelona, Real Madrid Tottenham are a load of Yids" 60's Arsenal football song

... remove all stars of David from Palestinian land!

Welcome to the new world. Gonna chop off hands for stealing yet? How about banning women from driving cars? Any day now...

Well done!!!

Who is next? Where does this stop? Sending people to gaol for quoting?

During the world cup I saw 10 matches where large Palestinian flags were flying - in case you are wondering Palestine didn't compete in the world cup. I want to see a ban on that flag as well.

It is a scandal. Israel is a souverain nation. This is anti semitism.

When Israel is fighting for its existence, largely in the arena of public opinion what kind of person would take an Israeli flag to a soccer game in Italy. The person would likely be sitting alongside other British soccer fans who are known the world over for childish, rude, vulgar and sometimes deadly behaviour at soccer games. What is the point of risking a scene of horrific soccer hooliganism perpetrated against sea of Israeli flags being replayed on screens around the world. If you want to fly the flag in Italy arrange a parade, fly them at cultural sites, charities, private homes, whatever makes sense given cultural norms and laws of Italy and Israel. But do it in a location where those friendly do Israel can control the message.

"The club's management said that the policy of not allowing flags with political or religious messages is already known and accepted by most fans." The Star of David is not rooted in religion. All flags are representative of the nations who bear them- no more, no less. To single out Israel for reasons that could apply to any country, reasons that most other countries would certainly object to, doesn't make sense at all.

...which is fast becoming the symbol of his run down little island, once called Great.

"The hand that held the dagger has struck it in the back of its neighbor." FDR June 10th, 1940.

T-SHIRTS is the answer........DK

"The Milan prefect, Gian Valerio Lombardi, with whom I have spoken, has denied that any Italian police authority has made any stipulation against banners bearing the Star of David,", Fiano said.

I thought Italy had overcome the disastrous legacy of Mussolini. I guess not... I say: fly the flags, and with pride! Go Tottenham!

Direcctly from the website: http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/travel-advice-inter-milan-141010.html "Flags and banners with appropriate wording would be welcome at the Stadium, but the Police Authorities have advised that those flags showing the Star of David will not be allowed access and may be confiscated. Please respect this request."

Read the article...all political flags are banned not just Israel.

Apparently its a rumor but i am sure the italian authorities have mentioned some warnings about it. Its simple, arab presence during the games, israeli flags on the ground = trouble. Its incredible how the muslim presence worlwide as influenced the world to a new order. Have you seen what happened to Canada at UN? Arab influence caused it. Our world today as a big influence on arab politics and there terror organizations.

We have to understand that last week something totally sick happened during the football match between Italy and Serbia. A big group of serbian supporters close to neo-fascist racist movements really screwed the game and violence in the stadium and outside occurred. In this week the debate was in the news papers, blaming this stupid actions and trying to explain how such a thing had happened. in This light i kind of understand the action of the police that often in italy prohibits supporters to attend football games in away risky games. That is just to guarantee a certain degree of security. Now it happens that a team like the hotspur symbol is the david star flag, flag that often raise strong opinions in one sense or in the other. A flag that is not any other flag, especially when there is a risk of neo-fascist supporters being present at the game. And i think is in this light that italian police acted in order to avoid eventual problems. It's not right because every flag has the right to be waved, but for a matter of pure security i can understand it. It would be better to ban the crazy supporters, but everybody knows that is not easy to deal with such big crowds that often act in an unpredictable way. go spurs go!!

This is common in Italy, doesnt matter if its the jewish flag, the afghan flag or the southafrican flag. In Milan there is a rule at the San Siro that you can only bring banners that is approved, with that goes flags as well, it should only be the flags of your team that you are cheering for and not political or religious ones. In national games its a different thing, but bear in mind that in the series no matter if it is in sweden or in italy, you have to have approved banners and flags. In San Siro there is a heavy security process when you go in, they check all the banners and all the flags, for example I wasn't allowed to have an afghan flag which it said Afghan AC Milan fans on, mainly because I didn't have a note of approval for it lol. Silly but hey its beuraucracy

Ghaddafi has bought proud Italy ! how much ?

Why is anyone actually trying to make sense out of this? How obvious can you get without noticing it for what it is? "All our citizens have equal rights." (However some citizens rights are less equal than others). WAKE-UP! EU(istan) is going the way of old Europe. Attack, appeasement, loss, destruction, crys for help from (whomever) and finally; after realizing their loss, they rededicate themselves to be compliant with the redirection of their lives to occupation, second class citizenship, thieft, murder, rape and the complete loss of national identity and human individualism. Then again, what do I know?

Just a stupid game followed by hordes of uneducated barbarians.

Cant belive it

or anyone even chanting Lets Go Israel !

For those of you who read Italian: "Nel pomeriggio la prefettura di Milano ha negato che qualsiasi autorità di polizia italiana abbia dato disposizione di vietare l'esposizione di bandiere con la Stella di Davide." From La Repubblica.

The Star of david is a symbol of Israel not the United Kingdom or England.

Since they are all political... Of course I am being sarcastic t make a point.

If the match was between two countries then it's OK to carry your country's flag, otherwise fans should carry their favorite team's flags.

WoWWWWWWWWWeeee guess what Benito Mussolini"s back ......

As an Italian (and a reasonable friend of Israel) I can try to give an answer to this seemingly unreasonable ban: last week the match Italy-Serbia was interrupted by riots by Serbian right-wingers waiving Serbian flags and anti-Albanian banners. Italian police was blaimed for not being able to prevent the riots; this is why Italian authorities probably adviced Spurs fans not to waive "political" flags.

Police cannot ask something like that...In Italy all sorts of flags go everywhere and even Serbian terrorist went to the stadium in Genova with his death shirt and did what the TV all over the world has seen just a week ago...Take your flags....

Let's put something clear. The Israeli flag has not been banned because of some antisemitism by the Italian State, but because police fears it would be dangerous to those who expose it. And the difference is important. Police or whoever took the decision did not say "Don't bring the flag because we do not like Jews" but "Don't do it because we do not know how some Inter supporters will react". I believe that many of you know little or nothing about Italian football, but unfortunately ultras are getting more and more violent and racist, and our government seems unable to do something to prevent them from doing whatever they want. This is a big problem and I am not justifying police choice in any way: it is disgusting to see that Spurs' fans can not expose a flag because some Inter supporter are racist idiots and police does nothing, also because it is a daily problem for all those football fans who only want to enjoy a match.

Calling Berlusconi Mussolini n.2 is the most stupid and clueless statement ever. Berlusconi is the most pro-Jewish (and pro-Israel) non Jewish world leader ever. He even spent Roshhashana eve at the Israeli ambassador's residence on private terms. Stop being idiotic, there is absolutely no anti-semitism or anti-zionism from the Italian authorities, it's exactly the opposite. Stop whining for g-d's sake.

Have'nt watched games in ages, but I do not recall a similar controversy

Unvelivable!!! As an italian and Israel supporter I am ashamed by such a stupid, meaningless decision....

i love the star of david,thats my protection wherever i am

The Swiss flag signifies neutrality, the South African flag - multiracialism, the Japanese flag - War in the Pacific, the Israeli flag .........?

Italian football is known for it's violence,all it needs is a couple of brain dead fantics chanting anti.semitic slogans and all hell brakes loose. I am against the banning of the Israeli flag,but if it could save trouble by not having it there,all the better.

They cannot even copy another newspaper without leaving out the most important details: "The Milan prefect, Gian Valerio Lombardi, with whom I have spoken, has denied that any Italian police authority has made any stipulation against banners bearing the Star of David,", Fiano said.

Oh, how I hate this game! It's more trouble than it's worth. It's not about the sport anymore. I'll take baseball over this nonsense any day.

Il Duce II is upset with the Shield of David? Well, considering what his philsophical and political leader eventually came to agree with . . . Who can be surprised that Il Duce 2 has proscribe the Shield of David? Mussolini was not an anti-Semite originally. He was the man who first made Jews full citizens of Italy. He was a BIG supporter of Jabotinsky and the Revisionists. He lent Italian ports and the navy in support of Jabotinsky's plot to seize Jerusalem. He had a jewess Mistress. Then Hitler showed him up and required an act of fealty. Suddenly Il Duce became an anti-Semite. Any surprise Il Duce 2 has turned out to be conveniently anti-Semitic?

This is not possible under EU-Law. And it happens not to be true. BTW: Like Spurs, Ajax fans bring along the Star of David flags for decades now where ever they play.

I'm pretty sure that red-T is St. George's cross. hypocrisy.

Would make a good soccer shirt, too.

Doesn't every flag have a religious or a political message? How absurd to ban one of them. I'd stay away from the game. There are more interesting things to see in Milan.

This disgusting. If the flag was one of the United States would that be less political? I think not but, no one would even consider banning it. The flag of Israel should be held high whenever Israeli's and or Jewish people have a vested interest in ant matter

Spurs are an English team, not Israeli. The fans should be displaying English flags.

What a bunch of "f.....g a..h...s" How about if I bring a cardinals cap and use it to drink beer out of it!

UEFA and Italian police have denied anything alike

When you bring politics or religion into an arena with so many uneducated people as there are in the average soccer stadium, you can expect rude responses from part of the opponent's side. I'm not sure how this is at Tottenham, but at Ajax Amsterdam these flags would be waved by people who had nothing to do with Israel or Judaism and it lured opponents who had nothing to do with nazism or Palestinian activism to shout the most horrible things. Awkward and unnecessary. Not that those Ajax fans minded of course, as it was all part of their role playing game. So I'd say there is no real need to be offended when they don't allow this kind of abuse of your symbols.

flags that have crucifixes, or crescents on them were banned too but i know that is not the case. I have seen many Serie A matches and fans of Arab players (who's flags have crescents) or Turkish teams have displayed their flags not to mention all the European flags with crucifixes on them have been displayed as well. So this rule isnt fair, it discriminates against Jews and Israel because we're few, and Israel is the only Jewish country so it's easy to impose this ban. Very disappointed with Italian authorities, I hope Spurs fans ignore this unjust rule...COMON YOU SPURS!!!

Utter Drivel, more of the "soft war" against Jews and everything Jewish.

If Haaretz had check this story up they would find that the police in Milan say they didnt issue such an ban at all. http://www.france24.com/en/20101015-spurs-fans-told-leave-star-david-regalia-home

Finland, Norway, Sweden , and Denmark clearly have crucifixes on their flags. Are they allowed ?

I am an Arsenal fan I would also condemn Israel for it's policies of apartheidism to the Palestinians, but I would be disappointed if my national flag was banned from football grounds. So let Spurs fans have the flag they wish. keep sport out of Politics.

OMG we all need to bring our star of david flags out NOW!!

They say it's known in the article not to show political or religious flags - i ask when else have the Italian authorities imposed this ban?