Sudanese football ultras unveiled a vile banner of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler before spelling out “Holocaust” at a recent match, using pyrotechnics to make the sick message visible.
Supporters of Al-Hilal Club, who currently sit 2nd in the Sudan Premier League, unraveled the banner of Hitler’s image during a crunch home fixture against top of the table Al Merreikh on Friday.
Supporters then spelled out the word “Holocaust” with separate smaller banners in the stands of Al-Hilal Stadium, before lighting flares so as to make the message visible in the dark.
The Holocaust was the World War II genocide in which Nazi Germany, under Hitler’s rule, attempted to systematically exterminate the Jewish people, which resulted in the deaths of six million European Jews.
It is reported that police did not interfere so as not to cause more disorder among the rowdy group, and television cameras did not broadcast images of that section of supporters.
However, Al-Hilal players approached the fans and asked the fans to take down the banners and extinguish the flares.
The club are one of the most successful in the Northern African nation, winning 27 Sudanese titles, and appearing twice in the African Champions’ Cup final.
Last month, 13 fans of Italian team SS Lazio received banning orders for producing stickers of Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank depicted in a jersey of arch rivals Roma.
The Italian Serie A ordered passages from Anne Frank’s diary be read out before each following game in Italy as a result, to which some fans sang fascist chants. Copycat behavior was later reported in Germany.