Swiss champions FC Basel could face disciplinary action after Greenpeace activists briefly interrupted their Champions League match on Tuesday unfurling a huge banner inside the stadium aimed at Russian-owned Gazprom.
The European football association Uefa said Basel had been charged with «inadequate organisation» of the game at home to Schalke 04 after four Greenpeace protesters wearing orange boiler suits abseiled from the roof into the stadium and unfurled the huge banner reading «Gazprom, don’t foul the Arctic» and «Free the Arctic 30».
Gazprom is a sponsor of both the Champions League and and the Bundesliga club Schalke, who won the game 1-0.
Two weeks ago Russian authorities detained 30 members of the pressure group – including one Swiss – who were aboard an icebreaker, the Arctic Sunrise, when they broke up attempts to scale the Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform run by the state-run Gazprom. All 30 have been remanded in custody for two months. At the end of Wednesday 14 had been charged with piracy, which carries a jail term of up to 15 years.
Play was halted for around five minutes in Switzerland. The protesters hauled themselves back on to the roof while officials watched from the touchline and the match continued.
«With this action, the defenders of the Arctic showed the red card to the Russian sponsors of the Champions League and German club, and to their oil-drilling and dirty tricks in the Artic,» said Greenpeace in a statement.
Uefa said that it had also opened a separate case after Schalke fans used pyrotechnics immediately before the kickoff. Swiss police also used rubber bullets to separate Basel and Schalke fans who had clashed after the match outside the stadium. Twelve people were injured and three were taken to hospital.