Was man asked to remove Union Jack waistcoat because it offended minorities? Fact Check

A video is spreading across social media purporting to show the moment a man was thrown out of a December 2018 boxing match between Frampton and Warrington because he was wearing a Union Jack waistcoat. Many captions attached to the video claim it was because the waistcoat may offend minorities.

An example of the video and an accompanying caption can be seen below –

Boxing fan has just been kicked out of Manchester Arena for wearing a Union Jack waistcoat because it might cause offence to a Minority of the audience!
MAKE THIS GO VIRAL! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY OUR NATIONAL FLAG, YOU SHOULD,NT BE IN THIS COUNTRY IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The video and resulting captions are based on a real incident that occurred during the Frampton vs. Warrington boxing match at the Manchester Arena on December 22nd 2018. However many of the captions that have been attached to this video are misleading or disputed by staff at the venue.

Below we rank the assertions made by many captions attached to this video

– A man was asked to remove his Union Jack waistcoat at the December 22nd boxing match – TRUE
– The man was thrown out of the boxing match venue for wearing a Union Jack waistcoat – DISPUTED
– The man was asked to remove his Union Jack waistcoat because it offended minorities – FALSE

As is common with sporting events in certain arenas in the UK and elsewhere, those attending these events are asked to abide by certain dress restrictions, which often include not wearing garments associated with football or rugby teams or in some cases national colours. During the boxing match, Manchester Arena had a “no colours” dress policy in place, and despite the claims made above, this wasn’t to avoid “offending” minorities, rather it is an effort to curb sporting related violence.

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Manchester Arena is certainly not the only sporting venue to impose such restrictions, and according to a venue spokesperson, the dress restrictions had been advertised ahead of the event.

As is standard procedure for all arena boxing events, football and/or rugby colours are not permitted into the venue. Due to a large number of travelling international fans at last night’s event this was extended to include national colours.
All ticketholders were made aware of this policy both in advance of their visit and at point of entry into the venue.

What is also disputed by venue staff is that the man in question was not escorted off the premises for wearing the waistcoat, rather due to his “aggressive” behaviour directed towards security staff when he was asked to remove it.

The said ticketholder was asked on three separate occasions to cover up his waistcoat but refused each time.
…His subsequent removal from the venue by British Transport Police was as a result of his increasingly aggressive behaviour towards staff and not because of his refusal to comply with our clothing policy, as has been claimed.