European football's governing body UEFA has been told by the Ukrainian FA to investigate an incident which saw a Manchester City supporter hit as an official tried to confiscate his Ukrainian flag.
Yaakov Kris, 30, is a City supporters' club member and attended the Champions League final in Istanbul this weekend. Now residing in Israel, Kris was originally born in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa and brought a Ukrainian flag with him to show solidarity with his country.
However, after putting the flag on display at the front of the stand, Kris filmed a confrontation he had with two men who were trying to confiscate it. At one stage, a man wearing a UEFA accreditation and Turkey-branded clothing appeared to hit Kris' hand in order to free the flag from his grasp.
Speaking to The Guardian, general secretary of the Ukrainian FA, Yuriy Zapisotskiy, called on UEFA to investigate the incident. He said: "We have already sent in a request for clarification and estimation of the situation and whether there was any breach of UEFA rules by the fan. We are quite sensitive to these things. There has been no response so far."
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A UEFA spokesman told the newspaper the incident was 'unfortunate' and there was no prohibition on national flags at the Ataturk Stadium. "First of all, please be informed that security inside the stadium is under the responsibility of the local organisers and the local police," he said.
"It was an unfortunate individual initiative from one of the local Turkish police security officers to remove the flag. When the Turkish police match commander was informed, he immediately asked for the flag to be returned to the fan, which you can see happening
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