Luis Ayllón UEFA has sanctioned the Spanish national football team players Álvaro Morata and Rodrigo Hernández “Rodri” with one match for their chants of “Gibraltar is Spanish” during the celebration, in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, of Germany's winning of the European Championship, on 15 July. UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee (CEBD) had opened disciplinary proceedings against the two players, following an official complaint filed by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA), which described the celebration by the Spanish team as "extremely provocative and insulting." It also defined the chants as "unacceptable" and pointed out that in "football there is no place for behaviour of this nature." Now, the body that governs football in Europe has decided, as it says in a statement, that neither Morata nor Rodri will be able to participate in the next UEFA team competition match "for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sporting events for non-sporting demonstrations and for discrediting the sport of football." 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 Government. The Gibraltarian government welcomed the decision taken by UEFA to sanction what it considers "deeply offensive and discriminatory comments against Gibraltarians," according to a statement released yesterday. According to the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, the measure "rightly underlines that the chant in question brings football into disrepute." "Gibraltar belongs to Gibraltarians and no chant or anything else will ever change that," he added. On the contrary, the Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE) announced that it will send letters to the European Union and to the Spanish office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) "considering that the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations violate fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, in their condition not only as workers, but as citizens." "AFE understands that UEFA has seriously attacked the right to freedom of expression of both footballers, who outside their work environment sang 'Gibraltar Spanish' during the celebration party after Spain won Euro 2024," the association said in a statement. For his part, the mayor of Algeciras and president of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, José Ignacio Landaluce (PP), criticized the Spanish Government for its silence regarding the disciplinary file on Morata and Rodri. "In all this time we have not seen a single gesture from the Executive in defense of the players and it is to be hoped that now, with a resolution on the table, Spain will show its rejection of this sanction, whose arguments are, at the very least, more than questionable," said Landaluce. "UEFA cannot set itself up as a political body, and has turned a celebration into a confrontation between two sovereign states. The Spanish government should immediately take action to defend the interests of our national team players and the flag of our country," he said.
