Portland Timbers fans plan protest after MLS bans supporters for waving Antifa supporting Iron Front flag
MLS banning of the Iron Front flag prompts Portland Timbers fans to protest. The Iron front flag was used in the 1930s by the anti-Nazi socialist party but today is used by Antifa.
Portland Timbers supporters plan to protest after multiple fans received three-game bans for flying flags bearing Iron Front imagery during a match last weekend, a supporters group said Thursday.
Members of the Timbers Army flew the flag in a match between the Timbers and Real Salt Lake. The banned supporters received the penalty for violating Major League Soccer’s Code of Conduct, which states that “Using (including on any sign or other visible representation) political, threatening, abusive, insulting, offensive language and/or gestures, which includes racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist or otherwise inappropriate language or behavior” is prohibited during matches.
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In response, the Timbers Army announced they would not fly Timbers flags or use smoke for goal celebrations during the club’s match against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.
“Our focus this weekend will be on education,” the statement read. “We will use banners with words instead of symbols to remind the world of our unwavering opposition to fascism and to discrimination. We will increase our written communication, both inside the stadium and online, about the reasons for our protest and the larger issues that the Iron Front flag ban represents. We will continue to fight for the League to lift the bans for individuals who displayed Iron Front flags and banners on August 31.”
The supporters said Timbers officials agreed to meet with them about the bans and other issues they want to be brought to light, including “how to ensure that the stadium and the streets are safe and welcoming for marginalized groups.”
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“We want to make something very clear: Our fight is not a fight with the Portland Timbers,” the Timbers Army said.” Our fight is against white nationalists, white supremacists, and others that seek to bring hate and violence to our stadium, city, state, and country. In this moment of darkness, we feel obliged to rally to make the soccer community the inclusive place that the world isn’t for so many of our marginalized communities here in Portland.”
Major League Soccer recently banned the Timbers and the Seattle Sounders from using the Iron Front symbol, used by Antifa supporters, from being displayed inside the stadiums.
In this July 21, 2019, photo, a sign that reads "Anti-Facist Always Seattle Anti-Racist" is displayed in the supporters section during an MLS soccer match between the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott explained the reasoning behind the league’s action last month.
“I think it was the belief of the league and the clubs that fans are at our games to enjoy the game and that there is a place for third-party political organizations or groups to express their views, but that place isn't within our stadiums,” Abbott told the Associated Press.
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The symbol – composed of three arrows pointing downward and to the left – has been adopted by some Antifa supporters. It was used in the 1930s by a German group that opposed the Nazis.
Fox News’ Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
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