Rijsel is vlams ('Lille is Flemish'), read the banner which was unfurled by the Lille fans ahead of their French Ligue 1 championship match against Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday.
The slogan references the northern French city's ties to the historic County of Flanders. Lille also holds an unofficial status as the capital of French Flanders, the northern strip of the country which historically spoke a dialect of Dutch, although the area is mostly French-speaking today.
The use of vlams on the banner, initially interpreted as a misspelling of Vlaams, oould also be taken as the West-Flemish dialect spelling of the Standard Dutch word for 'Flemish'.
Lille, which has changed hands various times in its history, definitively became French after the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, having previously been part of Flanders within the Spanish Netherlands. It is still commonly referred to in France as La capitale des Flandres ('The capital of Flanders'), a name which is notably reflected in the city's main domestic railway station Lille Flandres.
Reminders of the city's Flemish identity are common at the football team's matches, where references to Rijsel and the Flemish lion are commonplace.
At Sunday night's game, it was the flag that accompanied the banner which caused a stir.
Nationalist connotations
As the players walked out onto the pitch, the Stade Pierre-Mauroy's north stand held up a variant of the Flemish flag widely associated with the far-right and pro-independence movements north of the border, known as the Zwarte Vlaamse Leeuw (Black Flemish Lion). While the flag also features a black lion on a yellow background, it did not include the red claws and tongue which characterise the Belgian region's official flag.
French sports daily L'Équipe first pointed out the nationalist connotations of the Lille ultras' tifo (flag or banner) on Sunday evening, with Flemish media later following suit. The flag also drew criticism from other Lille fans on social media.
The use of the flag has been seized on by elements of the far-right. An image of the display was posted on social media the day after the match by Tom Van Grieken, the leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party (which uses the black lion in its branding).
"While Flemish lions are increasingly being banned from our football stadiums, football clubs abroad are embracing their regional identity," he commented, while tagging the CEO of the Belgian Pro League, Lorin Parys.
The Dogues Virage Est group, which organised the display, responded to criticism of the flag on their Facebook page: "The tifo paid tribute to the county to which Lille belonged in the Middle Ages. We chose an original version, entirely in black, not to express a political view but to embody the strength, pride, and unity of our region.
"The red claws and tongue came much later, and are linked to disputes which go back to the founding of Belgium. These debates have nothing to do with our approach."
The 'vlams' in the slogan, they add, is a pun on the words flamboyant (in the sense of 'blazing') and 'Vlaams'.
'Bringing a Belgian problem into France'
The group, which describes itself as "apolitical", has been linked to other controversial incidents in the stands at Lille games. In January, La Voix du Nord reported that several members of the ultras group paid tribute to Jean-Marie Le Pen at a match after the founder of France's far-right National Rally party died.
While the club's social media accounts shared pictures another tifo that appeared during the match (which simply read Allez Lille - 'Go Lille'), the Rijsel is vlams banner did not appear in any of the other posts. Large-scale pre-match displays are nevertheless approved by the club before matches.
Speaking to La Voix du Nord, the DVE leader Donatien Drouin added that the controversy over the display was "bringing a Belgian problem into France".
Speaking to the regional outlet, Lille president Olivier Létang endorsed the fans' position: "Our club in particular, and sport in general, is apolitical and is not a stage for politics. The historical reminder in the DVE statement is completely in line with the club's position. There is no controversy to be found."
Sunday's match finished 1-1, with Ethan Mbappé (the younger brother of Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé, who was watching on from the stands) scoring a late equaliser to deny his former club the win. The Lille starting eleven featured three Belgians: Nathan Ngoy and Matías Fernández-Pardo (both Brussels-born), as well as the Wallonia native Thomas Meunier.
