Hamrun Spartans issued a statement in which they announced that they had written to UEFA demanding that the second leg of the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round against Maccabi Haifa played in a neutral country rather than in Israel.
In a letter sent to UEFA, Hamrun Spartans urged the latter to move the second leg match originally planned to be played in Haifa, to a neutral country. This move is being requested to safeguard all the Hamrun Spartans contingent planning to go for the 2nd leg match.
Hamrun’s request for the match to be moved is being based on 2 main premises:
- The incidents on Tuesday at Ta’ Qali;
- The political situation in Israel following clashes between lsraelis and Palestinians not far off from Haifa. On this point, Hamrun Spartans had already voiced their concerns through another letter dated 7th July 2023.
Hamrun Spartans reiterated with UEFA that should their request to move the second leg in a neutral country is not upheld, they would consider not honouring the second leg to safeguard their contingent.
The club said that the continued warnings about the possible clashes and incidents by the away fans, to the extent that right after the draws. there was a request to swap the first match in Malta with the match in Israel, proved to be useless since the requests were not upheld.
In the said letter sent to UEFA, Hamrun emphasised that the clashes, and the throwing of the flares by the Maccabi fans were unprovoked. These clashes led to 2 persons being hospitalized whilst many others, including families, had to leave the stadium.
The Spartans committee said in its letter that despite the repeated pledges by the security detail accompanying the Maccabi team. that everything will run smoothly, evidently this was not the case.
Hamrun Spartans appealed to UEFA for an urgent in order to safeguard the entire contingent.