Originally published 2021-07-04.
On 3 July 2021, before Denmark's Euro 2020 quarter-final against the Czech Republic at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan, a stadium steward pulled a rainbow flag out of the hands of a Danish fan. Photographers caught the moment, the images spread quickly online, and UEFA said it had never told stewards to confiscate rainbow flags and opened an inquiry. The flag was returned to its owner after the match, which Denmark won 2–1 to reach the semi-finals.
The incident was small, but it landed in the middle of the biggest argument of the tournament: how far UEFA would allow the rainbow symbol of LGBT rights to be shown at a championship played across eleven countries with very different laws. Here is what happened in Baku, what UEFA said, and why it struck such a nerve.
What happened in Baku
The fan, Kristoffer Føns, told Danish broadcaster DR that an official guard came up to him and pulled the flag from his hands. He said he had expected Baku to be a place where human rights were not a priority, and that he would have felt like a hypocrite not to take a stand, given his own doubts about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Denmark's equality minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said he was appalled. The supporters' group Danske Fodboldfans later reported that the flag had been handed back. On the pitch, goals from Thomas Delaney and Kasper Dolberg put Denmark ahead before Patrik Schick pulled one back for the Czechs early in the second half.
UEFA's response
UEFA said it had not instructed stewards in Baku, or anywhere else, to take rainbow flags from fans. After hearing about the incident it asked its match delegate and security officer to look into it with the local stewards, and it was told after the game that the flag had been returned. The governing body added that the rainbow flag reflects values UEFA itself supports.
That answer separated two things fans often blurred together: what the organisation's policy said, and what individual stewards hired locally actually did. Critics argued that the distinction mattered little to the fan whose flag was taken, and that UEFA had created the uncertainty itself through its earlier decisions.
The wider rainbow row at Euro 2020
The Baku incident did not come out of nowhere. In mid-June 2021 Hungary's parliament passed a law restricting content about homosexuality and gender change for people under 18, which drew condemnation from many EU governments. When Germany hosted Hungary in Munich on 23 June, the city asked to light the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours as a protest. UEFA refused, describing itself as a politically and religiously neutral organisation, and suggested another date instead. Munich lit its town hall in rainbow colours, and many other German stadiums lit up in solidarity.
A few days later, Volkswagen, one of the tournament's main sponsors, said it had been told it could not show rainbow-coloured advertising boards at matches in St Petersburg and Baku. UEFA said sponsors had to follow local legislation, and that the rainbow designs would appear at quarter-finals in Munich and Rome. Earlier in the knockout stage, Dutch fans had also reportedly been told to remove rainbow flags at their round-of-16 match against the Czech Republic in Budapest on 27 June.
European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas criticised the stadium-lighting decision, telling reporters: "Frankly, I do not find any reasonable excuse for that."
Why the venue mattered
Euro 2020, delayed a year by the pandemic, was spread across eleven host cities, which meant matches took place in countries with very different approaches to LGBT rights. Azerbaijan decriminalised same-sex relations in 2000, but it offers almost no legal protection to LGBT people. Since 2015 the advocacy network ILGA-Europe has ranked it last of 49 European countries on its annual Rainbow Europe map, and in September 2017 dozens of people from Baku's LGBT community were detained in a police operation that rights groups condemned.
Russia, another host, had its own law restricting what it called "gay propaganda". In that setting, a rainbow flag in the stands was never just decoration. To supporters it was a statement of values; to some local authorities it was something close to a political protest.
Neutrality versus values
UEFA's position was difficult to hold. On one hand, it ran its own "Equal Game" anti-discrimination campaign and had said it supported messages of tolerance. On the other, it wanted to avoid being drawn into disputes with host governments and to keep political messages out of its stadiums. The result was a series of decisions that pleased neither side: allowing rainbow armbands and boards in some places, refusing a rainbow stadium in Munich, and seeing a steward in Baku take a flag it said fans were allowed to carry.
Three points are worth keeping in mind when reading about the Baku flag:
- It was a single, quickly reversed action. The flag was returned the same day, and there is no evidence that UEFA ordered the confiscation.
- It still showed a real gap. Fans had no clear way to know whether rainbow symbols were welcome in every host city.
- It belonged to a specific tournament. Stadium rules have since been debated again at later events, so the episode is best read as a snapshot of summer 2021.
What changed afterwards
The Euro 2020 rows fed directly into the arguments around the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where several European captains planned to wear a "OneLove" armband before FIFA threatened sporting sanctions. Football's governing bodies are still trying to balance local laws with anti-discrimination promises, and supporters' groups continue to push for clear, published guidance on what fans can bring into stadiums.
For the Danish fans in Baku, the story ended with a returned flag and a semi-final place. For football more broadly, it was one of several moments that summer that made the question impossible to ignore.
Sources: Inside World Football: Danish rainbow flag wavers challenge stadium security in Baku; RTÉ: UEFA investigating confiscation of rainbow flag in Baku; Wikipedia: Hungarian anti-LGBT law; Wikipedia: LGBT rights in Azerbaijan; photographs as first reported by the Daily Mail.
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