The fans of Žalgiris Kaunas plan to bring Ukrainian flags to the home match against Belgrade’s Crvena Zvezda on Friday. In April last year, players from the Serbian team were instructed not to hold the “stop the war” banner unfurled by the Žalgiris team.
"The campaign is not only to support Žalgiris, but also to support Ukraine, because the opposing club has the exact opposite values,” Ainius Gasiūnas from the Žalgiris fan organisation, the Green White Boys, told LRT TV.
“They support Russia, they have close ties with Russian clubs,” he added. “We want to show everyone that we are not tired of supporting Ukraine.”
Read more: Serbian basketball team refuses to hold anti-war banner in Lithuania
Žalgiris CEO Paulius Motiejūnas and the club’s coach Kazys Maksvytis said they supported the initiative, but asked the fans to refrain from provocations.
After the incident last year, Crvena Zvezda accused Žalgiris of bringing politics to sports, while also saying the NATO flag hanging at the arena was a provocation.
Europe’s top basketball league, EuroLeague, then fined the Kaunas team 9,000 euros. The amount was later crowdfunded by the Green White Boys. After an appeal by Žalgiris, the fine was reduced to 3,000 euros, and the fans said they transferred the rest of the money to the Blue/Yellow NGO that helps Ukraine.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
