Dortmund fans protest against ‘UEFA mafia’ changes to the Champions League

Borussia Dortmund fans have made clear their opposition to Champions League reforms with a huge tifo blowing up European football’s governing body UEFA ahead of their one-sided 7-1 win over Celtic.

The supporters displayed the words “UEFA mafia” behind one of the goals before Tuesday’s match against Scottish team Celtic, above a banner reading “You don’t care about the sport – all you care about is money!”

Another banner above showed a website link that made it clear that the banners referred to Champions League reforms.

This season, UEFA has changed the structure of Europe’s premier competition by adding four extra teams. The group stage has been scrapped for a competition system in which each of the now 36 participating teams plays eight opponents once in an initial phase of the competition.

Celtic fans also flew Palestinian and Lebanese flags before Tuesday’s match.