Protesters gathered around Hampden Park stadium in Glasgow ahead of Scotland Women’s Euro 2025 qualifier versus Israel this evening.
The crowds were protesting Israel’s continued participation in international football following the country’s part in an ongoing conflict against Palestine.
Intense shelling and gunfire in the Gaza border city of Rafah is the latest update from the conflict with Israel saying it is now in effective control of Gaza’s entire land border.
Palestinian medics said that at least 12 Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Rafah while Israel’s military claimed there had been clashes in southern, central and northern Gaza but did not comment on the reported deaths in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
At Hampden Park, about 150 people carrying small coffins and Palestinian flags stood at the doors of the main stand while a handful of counter-protesters also demonstrated before the match.
Two weeks ago, in agreement with Fifa – international football’s governing body – the Scottish FA ordered that the qualifier be played behind closed doors due to safety concerns about the protests.
On the build up to the match a protester managed to get inside the stadium and chain themselves to the goal post causing a delay to the game which was due to kick off at 7.05pm.
Tonight’s match is the first of two consecutive fixtures Scotland play against Israel with the second also behind closed doors in Hungary next week.
Scotland head coach Pedro Martinez Losa says he believes the decision to stop fans from attending the match was taken "in the best interests of everyone".
"We have done some work with the group on research of the impact of games played behind closed doors," Martinez Losa said,
"The common sense is the motivational aspect with the players not having your fans but both teams are in the same conditions and we have done some work to make sure the group can compensate for this."
This isn’t the first event to be met by protesters of Israel as thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets of Malmo to protest Israel’s participation in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest at the start of May and Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, banned demonstrations along the beach side stretch of the Cannes Film Festival’s over fears of similar scenes.
