UEFA chief calls 'Stop Killing Children' banner critics 'idiots' amid Gaza genocide

The head of European football has slammed critics of an official UEFA banner reading 'Stop Killing Children' as "idiots", in what was widely considered to be a message to Israel over its war on Gaza.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said that the statement displayed by UEFA before the Super Cup match between Tottenham Hotspur and PSG, was directed at "reckless politicians", whose lack of action allows for children to be killed in conflicts.

The banner reading 'Stop Killing Children, Stop Killing Civilians' was widely seen as a reference to the war in Gaza, with two refugee children from the besieged enclave watching the game with UEFA officials.

"What's happening with civilians there is personally hurting, killing me," Čeferin told Politico. "It's impossible to see these things anymore."

"Whoever thinks that 'Stop Killing Children, Stop Killing Civilians' is a political message is an idiot, for me," he said, regarding criticism of the move by supporters of Israel.

Čeferin spoke emotionally about his experience watching the match with one of the Palestinian children, whose parents were killed in the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

"I've never seen a child hugging me so much as he did," he told Politico. "He needs love. He doesn't need another bomb on his head because of a geopolitical interest."

Children have suffered horribly in the war on Gaza, which has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians and is widely considered by experts to be a genocide.

At least 15,000 children have been killed and 21,000 left disabled, with 40,500 suffering "new war-related injuries", according to the UN.

Another 132,000 children below the age of five are also at risk of death from acute malnutrition by June 2026, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system has reported.

Despite this, Čeferin said Israeli football clubs would not be banned from UEFA football tournaments at present, despite similar sanctions on Russian teams following the invasion of Ukraine, but did not rule out action in the future.

"With the war, Russia-Ukraine, we had an almost hysterical political reaction. We were among the first to act, truly believing that sport could help put an end to this tragedy," he added. 

"Sadly, [with the war in Gaza], life showed us otherwise. Now I don't see much reaction from politics. From civil society, it's huge."

Some saw the UEFA banner as a meaningless stunt and demanded tougher action, such as expelling Israeli teams from European football.

UEFA was also slammed for a softly-worded statement about the killing by Israel of Gaza footballer Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the Palestinian Pele, which did not mention any details about how he lost his life.