Our Appeal to UEFA – Please Keep Ritual Slaughter off the Football Pitch

When we heard the disturbing news that a sheep was slaughtered at the stadium of Kazakh football team Shakhter Karagandy ahead of its Champions League match with Celtic on Tuesday, we sprang into action. PETA appealed to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) President Michel Platini asking him to ban the ritual slaughter of animals in European football.

UEFA claims to be “forward-looking”, and Platini himself has spoken about its “duty to protect the game, the players and our values”. Those values should certainly include not stabbing animals to death in barbaric pre-match rituals, and we’ve asked Platini to use his influence to make sure that this kind of bloodshed does not happen again in this season’s Champions League and Europa League.

Animal sacrifice has no place in modern society. We’re hoping UEFA will score a winning goal for kindness by taking a strong stand against this violence – for the sake of animals and for the many sports fans who don’t want to see the beautiful game tarnished with blood.