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Salford’s League Two match against Oldham was briefly disrupted when two men tried to plant a flag of St George inside the centre circle at the Peninsula Stadium.
The men entered the field during the first half wearing white hoodies displaying the message “Gary Neville is a traitor” before being removed by stewards and police.
The far-right group Britain First later claimed responsibility for the stunt, saying they had “teamed up with local Salford patriots” to protest against the “treachery of Gary Neville” – in reference to the Salford owner’s decision this month to remove a union flag from one of his Manchester development sites.
A day after a deadly attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester, Neville posted a video online to say he had removed the flag from his property because it was being “used in a negative fashion”, as he urged his followers to question what it means to be patriotic.
The former England defender turned property developer said he believed that “we’re all being turned on each other”, attributing much of the blame for the divide to “angry, middle-aged white men … who know exactly what they’re doing”.
He added: “Funnily enough on one of my development sites last week there was a union jack flag put up and I took it down instantly. Some people might be watching this and thinking: ‘Gary, you’re not really patriotic.’ I’ve played for my country 85 times, I love my country, I love Manchester and I love England.
“The union jack flag used in a negative fashion is not right and I’m a proud supporter of England, of Great Britain, of our country and will champion it anywhere in the world as one of the greatest places to live.
“But I think we need to check ourselves, check ourselves and start to think about bringing ourselves back to a neutral point because we’re being pulled right and left and we don’t need to be pulled right and left at all.”
The game resumed after the pitch invasion and Salford ran out 1-0 winners.
