Pitch invaders waving flags halt the UEFA Champions League football match between Manchester City and Galatasaray at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on Jan. 28, 2026. (Credit: Oli Scarff/AFP)
Four people of Kurdish origin stormed the pitch at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Wednesday, waving Kurdistan flags during a Champions League football match between Manchester City and Turkish club Galatasaray.
This brief pitch invasion interrupted the game for one minute, requiring stadium security to intervene and evacuate the four individuals. They claimed responsibility for their action in a video, stating they wanted to show solidarity with "Rojava," the Kurdish region in northeastern Syria.
Kurdish media, which widely shared videos of the event, reported that these young men are originally from the majority-Kurdish city of Darbandikhan in northern Iraq, located in the autonomous zone of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Demonstrations in support of Syrian Kurds have been organized in many countries, including the United Kingdom, particularly in the city of Manchester.
This act comes amid ongoing fighting for almost two weeks in northeastern Syria between the Syrian army and Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
This offensive by Damascus against the formerly autonomous Kurdish-led area has triggered renewed tensions in Turkey between the Turkish government and the Kurdish guerrilla. Its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, recently denounced "sheer hypocrisy" and a "deliberate attempt to sabotage the peace process" by the Turkish authorities, supporters of Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
