Hungary Prime Minister defends booing fans, says Ireland taking knee was 'provocation'

Hungarian fans booed the visiting Irish team for taking a knee before their recent game in Budapest

Ireland's Adam Idah with Ádám Nagy of Hungary

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said kneeling to protest against discrimination before sporting events was a custom related to slavery and alien to the central European country, adding that pressuring athletes everywhere to follow suit was "provocation."

Hungary, one of 14 host nations to Euro 2020, has been ruled for 11 years by hardline nationalist Orban, who has ruffled feathers with his tough anti-immigrant, nativist rhetoric in recent years.