Several pitch invaders interrupted Salford City’s match against Oldham on Saturday in protest against the club’s owner Gary Neville.
The former Manchester United captain sparked a furious backlash earlier this month when, in the wake of the Crumpsall synagogue terrorist attack, he accused ‘angry, middle-aged white men’ of dividing the country by ‘using the Union Jack in a negative fashion’.
Neville, along with David Beckham, completed a takeover of the League Two club back in May as part of a new consortium, buying out the rest of the Class of ’92.
Saturday’s game against local rivals Oldham was interrupted during the first half when several spectators made their way onto the playing surface.
One of the intruders, wearing a mask, paraded the St George’s cross, referencing Neville’s admission that he pulled down a flag at one of the construction sites he owns in Manchester.
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The protest was accompanied by chants of ‘Gary Neville is a w*****’ and ‘England, England’.
What did Gary Neville say about the Union Jack flag?
Neville’s comments earlier this month proved decisive after he took to his LinkedIn page to lament the way in which politicians had been fanning the flames of racial tension following an attack which saw two Jewish worshippers killed.
Neville said: ‘Funnily enough on one of my development sites last week there was a union jack flag put up and I took it down instantly.
‘Some people might be watching this and thinking, ‘Gary you’re not really patriotic.’ I’ve played for my country 85 times, I love my country, I love Manchester and I love England.
‘I’ve been building in this city for 15-20 years, and there’s no one put a union jack flag up in 15-20 years, so why do you need to put one up now?’
He added: ‘The Union Jack flag used in a negative fashion is not right and I’m a proud supporter of England, of Great Britain, of our country and will champion it anywhere in the world as one of the greatest places to live,
‘But I think we need to check ourselves, check ourselves and start to think about bringing ourselves back to a neutral point because we’re being pulled right and left and we don’t need to be pulled right and left at all.’