Real fans waving Tibetan flags are booted from U. stadium

University spokeswoman Coralie Alder on Friday said campus security officers police Real games, but she referred questions about the decisions at the game to Real officials.

Real Salt Lake representative Trey Fitzgerald said the fans were kicked out because their behavior disrupted the game for the other 11,000 fans in the stadium. The manager of the Chinese team would have pulled his team from the field and left the game if the flags weren't removed, Fitzgerald said.

"This is a case where we invited this team here, and we were their host, and we needed to be diplomatic," Fitzgerald said. "Sports is meant to create bridges, not divisions."

Coker, however, sees it as a case of his rights being repressed.

"My free speech and freedom of expression were violated. I don't think that fact can be questioned," Coker said.

Fitzgerald said the fans who were ejected weren't really interested in protesting China's politics and instead just wanted to harass and disrupt the Chinese team. He said other fans have frequently complained about those particular fans' use of profanity and sexually explicit language and props during previous games.

But Hone said he brought the flag to make a statement against China's policies and communism in general.

"I'm ashamed that Real Salt Lake even invited China to come," Hone said. "China has the worst civil-rights record in the world, and we just ignore it in this country. They call themselves the People's Republic, but it's not at all about the people."

Fitzgerald said Real Salt Lake's invitation of the Chinese team was not an endorsement of communism or a political statement. Instead, it was just a soccer game that stadium staff were trying to keep on track.

Coker and Hone complained that those with Tibetan and Taiwanese flags were singled out, and no one complained about Chinese flags that other fans were waving.

Coker admits that he displayed the flag partly to distract and annoy the visiting team, but he said it was mostly a "form of expression about the plight of the people of Tibet."

"I'm going to be contacting the ACLU, and I'm going to pursue it," he said. "I want to hold people accountable if they broke the law, because I know I didn't."

---

E-mail: dfelix@desnews.com