Under-8s match ‘used’ to promote Palestinians

A PARENT has attacked the “politicisation of under-eights football” after his son’s team walked away from a match with a squad whose manager refused to remove Palestinian corner flags from a pitch.

The Football Association is said to have asked Bedford-based Queen’s Park Crescents (QPCFC) not to deploy the flags in future following the 10 March incident.

Wixams Wanderers (WWFC) forfeited the match after their request for the Palestinian flags to be removed before kickoff was refused by the hosts.

An Israeli father, whose eight-year-old son plays for WWFC, told the JC that several parents had asked QPCFC to remove the Palestinian corner flags before the match started.

“Me and another dad went to the coaches and asked them: ‘Can you please take the flags down? They are political,’” said the father, who did not wish to be named.

After a short discussion, the coaches agreed, only for another individual associated with QPCFC to put them back up.

“He insisted; he said it was the club’s stance,” the father said. QPCFC claimed they had received an email from the FA that permitted them to fly Palestinian flags at their games. However, Bedfordshire FA refuted this claim and said no such approval had been made since October 7. After WWFC abandoned the match, QPCFC parents allegedly picked up the flags and placed them on a larger pitch where children were playing later that morning.

“I’m the only Jew or Israeli on the team,” said the father, “The rest of the team were 100 per cent supportive as soon as they realised it had become political. All of the families backed me, and we walked away. “If one person doesn’t feel comfortable, we don’t play. There is no way there is any room for this in an under-eights game. “Kids should not be used as a political tool,” the father went on.

In October, QPCFC added the Palestinian flag to their logo “in solidarity”. A spokesperson for the FA said: “We want children to be able to play football in a safe and welcoming environment.

“We have been made aware of the incident at the weekend, and we will be contacting the club to ask them to remove these corner flags for future matches.”