Ultras from Sparta Prague, the reigning Czech champions, attacked participants at this year's Prague Pride parade, seized flags associated with the LGBTQ+ community and burned them in public, ONE reported on Monday.
According to the Israeli outlet, the club's hardcore support group also unfurled a banner along the march route condemning the event, in what it described as the latest flashpoint in a long-running standoff between sections of the Czech capital's football fan scene and the pride community.
Saturday's march was the 16th edition of Prague Pride, staged under the slogan "Times Are Changing" and drawing an estimated 45,000 participants through the city center to Štvanice island — matching last year's turnout, according to local reporting.
ONE said Sparta's ultras have waged a years-long campaign against the LGBTQ+ community, with supporters of other Czech clubs sometimes joining the protest actions around Pride events.
Organizers and police had braced for a tense atmosphere. Security was built around hundreds of officers, including anti-riot units and dedicated conflict-prevention teams, with the heightened presence coming weeks after a car-ramming attack at Berlin's Christopher Street Day Pride festival on July 26 killed one woman and injured around 29 people. Marchers in Prague observed a minute of silence for the victims.
Notably, other coverage of Saturday's parade struck a different tone. A Prague police spokeswoman told local media that officers "did not encounter any significant complications" during the more than two-hour event, and reporting from Czech and English-language outlets on the day described scattered religious protesters and a pro-Palestinian demonstration along the route, without mentioning an organized confrontation involving Sparta supporters. That discrepancy could not be resolved by the time of publication, and readers should treat the specifics of ONE's account with appropriate caution pending further confirmation.
Whatever the scale of Saturday's incident, it fits a pattern for Sparta's support base, which has repeatedly drawn disciplinary and public attention this year. In May, a Prague derby against city rivals Slavia was abandoned in stoppage time after fans invaded the pitch and threw pyrotechnics, with several Sparta players targeted, prompting the Czech league's disciplinary body to warn that "such behavior will not be tolerated in professional football."
Sparta have also previously been fined by UEFA over supporter misconduct, and the club has had to publicly push back on accusations of fan behavior toward opposing players in recent European campaigns.
Prague Pride organizers have framed this year's march as carrying extra weight given the Berlin attack, casting the event as a statement of visibility and resilience rather than retreat — a backdrop against which any confrontation with football ultras lands with particular force.
