Fans of Sweden’s soccer teams are advised not to wear clothing in national colors when they travel abroad in the wake of the killing of two Swedish supporters before a UEFA Euro qualifying match in Belgium.
At least one of the men shot dead in the incident in Brussels on Monday was wearing a Swedish soccer jersey.
They exited a taxi not far from King Baudouin Stadium, which hosted the Belgium-Sweden match, and were chased into a building before being gunned down by a Tunisian national who posted a video online saying the Koran was “a red line for which he is ready to sacrifice himself.”
Photo: AFP
Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after a series of public Koran burnings by an Iraqi refugee living in the country resulted in threats from Islamic militant groups.
At a news conference in Stockholm, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “everything indicates this is a terrorist attack against Sweden and Swedish citizens, just because they are Swedish.”
Martin Fredman, head of security for the Swedish Football Association, on Tuesday said that fans making trips abroad are to be advised not to wear the blue-and-yellow attire associated with the country’s sports teams.
“It’s the case that a perpetrator has targeted Swedish citizens, so it would be reprehensible not to go with a recommendation that we should avoid [Swedish team clothing] when we are out on trips like this,” Fredman said.
Fredman said he had not received any such advice from Belgian authorities before the match.
The Swedish Sports Confederation on Tuesday published a list of “preventative measures” for fans traveling abroad for sporting events.
Among them was the “extent one should be exposed to Swedish paraphernalia.”
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