'Show genocide the red card!' - Dulwich Hamlet & Clapton women's match abandoned over Palestine banners

A women's football final involving Dulwich Hamlet and Clapton football clubs was abandoned yesterday after officials objected to fans of both teams displaying pro-Palestinian flags and banners. As part of the fifth tier of women's football in England, the London and South East Women's Regional Football League rarely features in the news, but this week's League Trophy Final held at Maidstone United's ground looks set to get international attention.

Clapton CFC Women's First Team were 2-0 up against Dulwich Hamlet Reserves after about 20 minutes. A statement from Clapton explains what happened next:

'Today’s L&SERWFL Trophy final between Clapton CFC Women’s First Team and Dulwich Hamlet Reserves at Maidstone United’s Gallagher Stadium was abandoned with Clapton leading 2-0.

We were told the management at the venue objected to the presence of a Palestine flag among Clapton’s support and an anti-genocide banner among the Dulwich Hamlet support. Both sets of supporters indicated they did not wish to remove the flag/banner and the venue and league and match officials decided the game could not continue. There was an offer to play the game to a conclusion behind closed doors but our players felt that football without fans is nothing. Clapton CFC is a members-owned, members-run football club.

A statement on behalf of the team said: “Today, 32 women were denied the opportunity to play the L&SERWFL Trophy final. About 20 minutes into the match, both Clapton and Dulwich supporters were approached by a representative of Maidstone United, Gallagher Stadium owners. He demanded that our supporters must stop waving the Palestinian flag, and the Dulwich supporters must take down their banner which read 'Show genocide the red card'. After both groups of supporters refused, he called the officials together and communicated that we could not use the ground while both the Palestinian flag and the banner were displayed.

Our given options were to 1) play the game behind closed doors or 2) to abandon the game. Clapton’s players chose to abandon the game. Both sets of fans then came together in solidarity with the Palestinian people, singing more songs and holding up our banners in support of trans women and the Palestine people, respectively. Our players and supporters are united in their support and concern for Palestinians who are being bombed daily. Showing that support with a flag or banner is no reason to abandon a cup final.”

The L&SERWFL have said the cup final is void and will not be replayed or awarded to either finalist. Both clubs will also now face an FA disciplinary process'.

There has also been a statement from Independent Dulwich Hamlet FC Fan Group  'The Pepper Army':

'Today's L&SERWFL Trophy final between Dulwich Hamlet women Reserves and Clapton CFC Women was abandoned with Clapton winning 2-0 after fans from both clubs refused to remove Palestine flags and a banner reading "Show Genocide The Red Card". 

We want to unequivocally state our support for the fans of both clubs who refused to bend to the demands of final hosts Maidstone United FC, and every player who refused  to play if the flags and banners were removed. 

The facts in Gaza are clear and widely accepted: the death toll in Gaza since October 2023 is estimated to be over 54,000; a united Nations Special Committee and Amnesty International have both concluded that the state of Israel is perpetuating a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza; this week the UK government issued a joint statement with the leaders of France and Canada calling on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza. 

Sport has long played an important role in putting pressure on governments perpetrating human rights abuses, from South Africa during the apartheid era to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. Those who argue that political protest does not belong in sport are either ignorant or are deliberately ignoring that history. 

This is particularly true in the women's game — access to the game has always been political, and even now, women continue to fight for the right to play football.  We don't protest at our games because we think one protest in a regional football competition will change what is happening in Gaza. But we do it knowing that every  protest joins a drumbeat of defiance that is slowly convincing the world it cannot ignore the daily murders perpetuated by the state of Israel.  We are, for the avoidance of any doubt, against genocide, against anti-Semitism, against Islamophobia, and against prejudice in all its forms. 

We are proud of the behaviour of Dulwich Hamlet fans today, and we are equally proud  to join hands with the fans of Clapton CFC, who have already done so much to shine a spotlight on the plight of the Palestinian people. History will judge us. Let us all be able to say we were on the right side.'

It seems likely that there will be some FA disciplinary hearing. While people in Gaza face starvation and daily bombing raids from Israel those who dare to speak up against it, and the British government's complicity, increasingly face official sanctions and in some cases criminalisation.

Fans from both clubs at the match (from Tim Harrison on twitter). The 'Free the Filton 18' banner refers to Palestine Action activists in prison for alleged involvement in an action against an Israeli weapons factory near Bristol.

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photo from Artist Taxi Driver @chunkymark 

'Partisanship' & 'Unsportsmanlike action' - Dulwich Hamlet supporters, 1903

With their stickers, radical fan contingent and even Transpontine banner, Dulwich Hamlet's supporters have been getting quite a reputation - featured recently in the Independent as the Rabble vanguard of the rise in non-league football support: 'Far, far away from the £2,000 season tickets, the officious stewarding, and the airline-stadium sponsorship of the Premier League, a football revolution is underway.In this otherworld, supporters can buy a craft ale and drink it standing behind the goal. Here is a place where crowd segregation is unnecessary and where fans, quite of their own volition, take up banners calling for an end to racism and homophobia in football and display them from the stadium walls'

More than a hundred years ago, the team's supporters already had a fearsome reputation, judging by this article in the South London Press, 7 February 1903:

'Perhaps without unduly prolonging an unsavoury subject, I may be permiited to quote from one letter sent me this week from a Hamlet supporter, judging by the gist of his remarks. He writes:  "... I have only watched them (Dulwich Hamlet) a few times this season, my chief reason for absenting myself being their strong weakness for fouling and the unsportsmanlike action of their supporters. The latter show far too much partisanship, and rarely give the opponents the slightest credit for good work. This kind of thing does the club concerned a lot of harm. Once get a strong and determined referee who will not put up with the insulting remarks made to him so often on this ground, but report the matter, and the ground will be closed... The Dulwich Hamlet are undoubtedly a fine team, but their reputation is likely to be tarnished unless the players mend their ways and the spectators behave like English sportsmen".

I believe the behaviour of certain sections of the Champion Hill crowd has already engaged the serious attention of the club committee... A few summary ejectments by the police and severe measures by the referees would quickly kill this pest that often brings humiliation and disgrace to a club morally, but not legally, to blame in this matter'.

Dulwich Hamlet FC - Transpontine Team

I have enough troubles of my own supporting a non-league club (one time old First Division) who are not from South London, without taking up the cause of Dulwich Hamlet FC. Still I notice with interest some of the banners that have been adorning their ground in recent times.

There's a Pride of South London banner...

...a banner that combines the emblems of Dulwich Hamlet with Altona 93- the Hamburg  team which some DHFC fans have linked up with (kind of non-league St Pauli):

(this photo and one above from Urban 75)

 ... and a Transpontine banner! Somebody asked if I had a hand in this, but I didn't. I suspect the artist sometimes known as Wolfgang Moneypenny/@vornstyle may have had a role. A source close to the Moneypenny camp told us: '"There are few performances as lurid and melodramatic as those found at a non-league football match". Anyway I know that he is somebody else who has embraced the use of the word Transpontine. So while I can't claim the credit, I like to think this site has helped to reintroduce the word into the local parlance as a synonym for South Londonish.