The celebration of the European Championship in Germany continues to be a source of controversy. UEFA issued a statement on Tuesday announcing the start of “disciplinary proceedings” against Spanish national team players Álvaro Morata and Rodrigo Hernández, in connection with the chants of “Gibraltar, Spanish” broadcast on 15 July during the official celebration in Madrid of the title of the European Championship in Germany won by Luis de la Fuente’s team.
UEFA has charged both players with four counts: breaching the “general principles of conduct”; “violating the basic rules of conduct”; “using sporting events for events of a non-sporting nature” and “bringing the sport of football and UEFA in particular into disrepute”.
In the statement issued by European football’s governing body, it is specified that the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee will decide on the matter “in due course”, so it is still too early to know the possible sanctions that the Spanish captain and the player chosen as the best of the tournament could face. The Gibraltar Football Association (FA) has welcomed UEFA’s position in a brief statement, describing the start of the investigation as “the first step” to determine the “illegality” of the chants.
UEFA had already announced on July 15 that a disciplinary inspector would assess a possible violation of its regulations by the players of the National Team. During the celebration, both players sang the chant Gibraltar is Spanish in the events with the public who came to welcome them in the capital to celebrate Spain’s fourth Euro Cup title.
Gibraltar’s reaction was not long in coming. On 16 July, the Football Association (FA) lodged an official complaint with UEFA, describing the Spanish team’s celebration as “extremely provocative and insulting”. The FA also described the chants as “unacceptable” and stated that “in football there is no place for behaviour of this nature” and described this behaviour as “an unnecessary mixing of a great sporting success with discriminatory political statements”.
Following UEFA’s announcement, the Spanish Federation has two weeks to present its objections and try to avoid a possible sanction.
On the other hand, the Spanish Government downplayed the events through the spokesperson and Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría. “If the context is always important, in the case of the chants that took place yesterday, it is even more so. There was a great celebration yesterday, and what could be heard must be put in the context in which it took place. No one has any doubt that the foreign policy of a country is established by the Government of that country,” she said.
It should be recalled that UEFA admitted Gibraltar as a full member in May 2013, following a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Spanish Executive.
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