MLS Says Columbus Crew Fans Can Fly Palestinian Flag After Two-Year Ban

After a two-year ban, Columbus Crew fans will be allowed to fly the flag of Palestine at home games, Front Office Sports has learned.

The Crew acquired star Palestinian striker Wessam Abou Ali with a $7.5 million transfer fee plus potential add-ons at the end of last month. The team’s official supporter group, the Nordecke, quickly requested that they be allowed to bring in the Palestinian flag to support Abou Ali, as is allowed for international players from nearly every other country. 

While MLS has strict rules barring political signage at stadiums, national flags are widely allowed, with one exception: The flags of Israel and Palestine have been banned since shortly after Oct. 7, 2023. Israel flags were grandfathered for Philadelphia fans, because the Union signed Israeli player Tai Baribo two months before that date.

The Nordecke sought a similar exemption, one that would allow them to make a wider show of support for all their players. “Soon after Wessam was officially announced with the team we made a formal request with the Crew front office to be able to display all flags for nations represented by our players,” a spokesperson for the fan group tells FOS. “This includes Wessam’s Palestinian representation as well as nations such as France, Algeria, Ukraine, and Cape Verde for other players.” (The Crew has one player from Ukraine, Yevhen Cheberko, and MLS did not ban Russian or Ukrainian flags after Russia invaded in January 2022.)

MLS has approved an exception, which was formally submitted by the Crew, the league confirmed to FOS. MLS will allow the Nordecke fan supporter group to bring one flag representing the birth country or senior national team of each first-team player. The Crew and Nordecke are set to hash out more details at a regularly scheduled meeting later this week.

“The Columbus Crew embrace soccer’s power to bring together people from all walks of life in our locker rooms, stadium and community,” a spokesperson for the team said in a statement to FOS.

The exemption only applies to the Nordecke supporters section at Columbus home matches; MLS is not dropping the ban entirely. The new rules could go into effect as early as the Crew’s next home match on Saturday, although the club has not said when Abou Ali will make his debut.

A spokesperson for MLS declined to comment, instead pointing to a remark given by Dan Garber earlier this season about the Fan Code of Conduct. “We want to ensure that we’re having displays that are not going to incite anyone. The best way to do that is to have the policy we have, which prohibits having political signage or anything to do with legislative acts on display in our stadiums,” Garber said. MLS’s politics ban has often been enforced on a case-by-case basis, with both “Abolish ICE” signs and “Make America Great Again” hats being removed.

The Crew announced on July 26 they had acquired Abou Ali from Egyptian club Al Ahly. The team had pursued him for months, but Al Ahly didn’t want to give up their star before the Club World Cup, where he scored a hat trick in one match. (The team went scoreless in its other two matches and didn’t advance past the group stage.)

Abou Ali’s departure from the Egyptian club was acrimonious. The player received so much backlash from fans around the transfer that he temporarily shut down his social media accounts, and formally apologized to fans and the club in a nearly seven-minute video posted by Al Ahly. The Palestinian Football Association issued a press release calling on fans and Egyptian media to stop the attacks against him.

Born in Denmark to Palestinian parents, the 26-year-old striker has scored four goals in 10 matches for the Palestinian national team since being approved for a one-time switch to join the squad last year. He previously represented Denmark at the youth level.

“It’s a big honor to represent my country and represent my people,” Abou Ali said in a Tuesday press conference marking his arrival in Ohio. “I’ll not go to politics because I’ve never done that, that’s not my thing, but to be a big face of the Palestinian national team and the people is of course a thing I’m proud of.”

Abou Ali has referenced the war in Gaza through his goal celebrations before. At the Club World Cup, he imitated a character from a popular cartoon of a Palestinian child symbolizing resistance. Last year, he recreated a well-known pose of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar weeks after his death.

The MLS ban has not stopped Palestinian flags from appearing at games, including in the fan section of the Portland Timbers. Fans also brought Palestinian flags during Abou Ali’s appearances with Al Ahly at the Club World Cup.

Palestinian athletes and administrators have repeatedly asked FIFA and the IOC to bar Israel from international competitions, as they did for Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

“Sporting bodies like FIFA and MLS have remained silent in face of Israel’s destruction of Palestinian soccer,” a spokesperson for The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which leads sports boycotts, said in a statement to FOS. “We have every faith in Crew fans and all sports fans to stand up for their right to advocate for sporting values…There can be no sports as usual during genocide or apartheid.”

Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 Palestinian soccer players, according to Palestine’s soccer federation. One of Palestinian soccer’s best-known players, Suleiman Obeid, was killed earlier this month while trying to retrieve aid in southern Gaza. In response to UEFA’s post paying tribute to “the Palestinian Pelé,” Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, from Egypt, wrote: “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?” According to the United Nations, more than 1,850 Palestinians have been reported killed while seeking humanitarian aid since late May.

“We deeply appreciate the solidarity shown by the Columbus Crew supporters toward Wessam Abou Ali,” the Palestine Football Association told FOS in a statement. “The Palestinian flag represents not only his identity but also the resilience and pride of our people. We fully support these efforts and see them as an important message of recognition and respect for Wessam and all Palestinian athletes.”