Spanish Football Federation told UEFA over 'unacceptable' chants by Manchester City's Rodri Hernandez
During the Euro 2024 winners celebrations in Spain on Monday evening, midfielder Rodri Hernandez caused controversy with a song exclaiming that “Gibraltar is Spanish”. Many in Spain believe that the small island nation should be under Spanish jurisdiction, but for now, it belongs to the United Kingdom.
Rodri's chants did not go down well at the offices of the Gibraltar Football Federation, who confirmed in an official statement that they will report the incident to UEFA, as reported by AS Diary.
“The Gibraltar Football Federation will make an official complaint to UEFA following the Spanish men's football team's celebrations at Euro 2024.
“The Gibraltar Football Association has pointed out the extremely provocative and insulting nature of the celebrations surrounding the Spanish men's national team's victory at Euro 2024.
“The Association received advice this morning about lodging a complaint with European football's governing body, UEFA, in relation to unacceptable chants and songs, relating to Gibraltar, sung by football players. of Spain senior men's team after winning Euro 2024.
“In football there is no room for behavior of this nature.”
The Governor of Gibraltar also condemned the incident.
“The Government of Gibraltar is disappointed after observing that several players of the Spanish football team celebrated their victory in the European Championship with songs with tired comments about Gibraltar.
“It is a totally unnecessary mixture of great sporting success with discriminatory political statements which are very offensive to Gibraltarians.
“The regrettable use of the celebration platform around the European Championship victory to promote the idea of usurping the territory of Gibraltar is against the principle that sport should not be used to promote a politically controversial ideology.”
It remains to be seen if there will be a sanction from the Spanish Football Federation, or from Rodri himself.
