The afternoon passes calmly in Mestalla before Valencia-Alavés last Sunday. Sun, walkers and people drinking their beers. No danger is apparent at first glance. But it’s the same. Just in case, a battery of up to 280 high-resolution cameras capture everything, inside and outside the stadium. Up to 88 focusing only on the stands. A refined security device, a kind of football Big Brother, directed by a police inspector who, when the time comes to graphically describe the extent of surveillance of what happens there, does not get lost in formalities: “Here I can help you.” count the freckles that that person [en la distancia] “It’s on his cheekbones,” he says. And she proves it. She asks one of her assistants to zoom in with one of the cameras pointing outside to make it clear that this is the case, that the level of quality of the images they receive is so refined that it resists comparison. “Any illicit action is quite likely to be recorded,” warns the command, which has its base camp in the so-called UCO (Operational Coordination Unit) room, inside the facility, where there are also health personnel, local police and , if the crash is high risk, also firefighters.
Morning Express witnessed and accompanied the entire security deployment of this match for more than seven hours, an example of what is mobilized on a league day, in which the two LaLiga match directors, in charge among others, also participate in a leading role. many other functions of recording any offensive, insulting or racist chant that occurs in the facilities or surrounding areas. And on this occasion, one of the employer’s three security officers also accompanied them.
The game begins and in the UCO room the ball is a background companion that moves on a monitor without sound. In the first minutes, the only voice that enters the room is that of the microphone of the person who leads the chants in the Valencia cheering stands, previously affiliated with the police. Not the ambient sound of that area, but directly the recording of the public address system. Control also ends there. In parallel, the inspector and an operator click, view and enlarge the images from the almost 300 cameras distributed in each corner on six large screens. Everything they capture will be stored for around a month on servers and, according to the LaLiga security officer, “it could be used as direct evidence in a trial.” “They do not allow manipulation,” this person bluntly points out, who, like all those who participate in the report, does not reveal his name or face for security reasons.
The sounds of the local entertainment stands reach the UCO, but one of the two LaLiga match directors also sits nearby, a figure that was promoted as a result of the Jimmy case, the Dépor ultra who died in 2014 in a fight with Atlético ultras near the Calderón. He and his partner, the main one, located in the locker room tunnel, take note of the chants that may be raised to the Competition Committee and the Anti-Violence Commission.
“In 2015, you still reported 25 choral songs [ofensivos], and today there are games like no other,” says one of them while remembering what those afternoons were like a decade ago. More agitated. In the case of Valencia-Alavés, they recorded three offensive chants. What has increased is the zeal in pursuing what can be produced. Perhaps the big difference: the answer.
The two match directors are connected through a chat that they create exclusively for each match where eight people are present, including several LaLiga officials, and in which they report in real time on each movement or possible incident; not only in terms of security. A kind of internal notarial record before five reports are delivered to the employers’ headquarters at 8:00 on Monday at the latest. “At night, or in the following days, I always do a search on the networks to see what is being said or in case we have missed something,” says one of them.
Having received their writings, LaLiga employees begin on Monday to dive into the images from three strategically selected cameras (in everything recorded, not just in what was broadcast on television) to locate the chants identified by the match directors and, if they see it pertinent , present that as evidence in Competition and Anti-Violence. If they need it, they turn to a lip assessment company. This season, they have commissioned seven reports for six events. “We have tightened the criteria on what is considered insulting,” they warn. There are no more attacks, but there are more complaints.
Regarding racism, the organization believes that there will soon be criminal convictions. The episode that Iñaki Williams suffered in Cornellà in 2020, they emphasize, was a key moment in this matter, and a year ago they applauded the creation of the figure of the hate crimes coordinating courtroom prosecutor. In any case, they insist on a point: “All the racist and homophobic chants have been individual, never choral. For example, the one a few weeks ago against Nico Williams at the Metropolitano.” This year, of the more than 750 First and Second matches played until last day, LaLiga had filed 12 complaints in the ordinary courts for insults, and not all for racism.
At Mestalla, the afternoon session was only altered by an incident in the visiting stands, where 178 Alavés fans with registered tickets were located. According to the police, two of them, belonging to the most radical section, were expelled for refusing to leave a security aisle free and breaking two seats. A few minutes later, several dozen left the premises in solidarity. The situation was resolved without any apparent problems.
The entrance had passed normally, apart from the fact that three fans were allowed to pass with other people’s tickets. Inside they were more guarded. And the departure also took place calmly. Some fans, yes, did not agree with the rest of the Alava zone following the second half sitting, almost without singing and with the banners upside down in solidarity with those expelled. “They have decided not to cheer and well, we have complied with it,” commented one of them, already on the street, resigned. Above all, because the 0-1 score had given them mathematical salvation. At night, the party directors, following their protocols, read the protest on social networks from the group of those expelled, in which they attached a video about the alleged poor condition of the seats. “They fell alone,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, in the locker room tunnel, the main match director did not change his routines. In addition to security, he attended to his second competence: television, because the employers are the ones who produce the signal. One of the reasons why this figure arose (now there are 40), as they explain, was to give uniformity to the image of any League match.
His work at Mestalla began at 2:35 p.m., four hours before the match, with a meeting in a room without any luxury, with gray gotelé, together with three members of the television operator and the Valencia match director, in which they discussed a microscopic meticulousness of the details of the broadcast: how many microphones there would be in an interview; the cameras (16 in total, 36 in a classic) that were going to be used and for what; the length of the half-time interview to the millimeter (“let’s talk to the referee so that he comes out last, and that there is no more than 30 seconds between the question and the answer,” asked the principal); the volume of the public address system in the pre- and post…
The 19-minute match took the form of a ladder where everything was scheduled, except what the players would do with the ball. Later, they checked the locker rooms so that, when the cameras entered, only the main sponsor of each club could be seen; They went up to the box to check that the television signal was correct; and they took photos with their cell phones of each interview to attach to their reports. The more interviews a team gives, the more points they get in a ranking that is then translated into money. Alavés was happy: they were third.
At 9:42 p.m., with the Basque fans returning home, the Mestalla area calm and the two teams outside the stadium, the two match directors walked out the door. The 280 cameras were turned off until the next match.
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