Hungary’s national football team scored its first win against England in 60 years in a Nations League match on Saturday, but headlines everywhere were focused on the audience — made up almost entirely of children — booed the English players as they kneeled for Black Lives Matter (BLM) before the match.
Saturday’s League of Nations match was supposed to be held behind closed doors, as the European Football Association (UEFA) had originally penalized the Hungarian national team with three closed-door matches after last summer’s European Championship for the behavior of disruptive Hungarian supporters.
Later, this penalty was reduced to two closed matches, with the second closed match postponed for two years. Using a loophole in the rules, the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) invited 30,000 children under the age of 14 and their 3,000 guardians to Puskás Arena to attend the Hungarian-English match on Saturday free of charge.
The video below shows the young audience’s reaction to the kneeling.
However, in its report on the match, the BBC added that the Hungarian public fully respected the English national anthem.
“I have no idea why people would choose to boo the gesture,” England manager Gareth Southgate told Channel 4.
“It is massively disappointing. It’s important people understand why we are doing it. It’s not something we want to hear. We want to keep pushing the message,” English defender Conor Coady said.
The only goal of the match was scored by RB Leipzig midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai in a penalty shot in minute 66. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán congratulated the team in a Facebook message, saying that the national team’s first victory against England “may have been visible even from the Moon,” referencing his fourth consecutive election victory on April 3, after which he also said that his landslide victory may have been visible from the Moon, and certainly from Brussels.
