9000 FC DAC fans sing the national anthem to protest new law: Video
9000 people sang the Hungarian national anthem before the FC DAC – Zilina match to protest the law that is set to be introduced to ban the singing of foreign states’ national anthems in Slovakia.
As we reported previously, the new amendment to an existing law would mean that the club could pay fines of up to €7000 each time the anthem is sung. The club represents the town of Dunaszerdahely (Dunajská Streda) and it’s the main team of the Hungarian minority group in Slovakia.
Prior to the kick off of the FC DAC- Zilina Slovakian League match (1-0), the home fans protested against the “National Anthem law” – which would prohibit the singing of foreign states’ national anthems from the 15th of May –by singing the Hungarian national anthem.
As described by nepszava.hu, before the match proceedings fans also sang Nélküled, a song about Hungarian minorities that has become the club anthem over the years. When the players walked out, the ultras from behind the goals welcomed them with spectacular choreography; fans held up yellow and blue ribbons on either side of the stand while in the middle red-white-green coloured flares were lit.
Check out it out on Nemzeti Sport’s video:
https://www.facebook.com/nsonline/videos/2223030438011328/
The national anthem is usually sung right before kick-off, however, on Saturday they already started singing during the pre-match formalities.
In the Slovakian press, the amendment is simply dubbed as ‘Lex DAC’ as it is clearly aimed at the football club based in Dunaszerdahely. This amendment is part of a law which aims to protect the national symbols of Slovakia. It was devised by former Slovakian footballer Tibor Jančula, who ironically played for Ferencváros, the Hungarian club that has a close relationship with FC DAC.
This absurd amendment would ban the singing of all national anthems at organised events if there is no official delegation present from a given country. This not only impacts Hungarians, but other minority groups too, including Czechs.
The Hungarian national team recently lost to Slovakia in the EURO 2020 qualifiers, but later this year they will meet again in Budapest.
Featured image: https://www.facebook.com/fcdac/
Source: nepszava.hu, nemzetisport.hu