FC Barcelona will not carry out any type of tribute in front of its fans at the Spotify Camp Nou to its footballers who were world champions last July “because it does not occur in the most appropriate context and at the most appropriate time”, and it will carry out this Thursday an act of exaltation of the estelada after what happened last Sunday in the Alicante town of Elche with a fan and the police.
“No, we have decided that the act that we wanted to do to recognize the Barça players who won the World Cup and that the Royal Spanish Federation had proposed to us will not be held because it does not take place in the most appropriate context and environment, or at the most appropriate time,” Laporta said in statements to the club’s official media.
The leader stressed that this decision has already been communicated to the RFEF itself and that the organization “has understood it perfectly.” “It will not be done because we understand that football should serve to unite and not to generate certain confrontations that I believe do not suit anyone,” he concluded about an act that would pay tribute to Lamine Yamal, Pedri González, Pau Cubarsí, Dani Olmo, Gavi, Joan Garcia, Eric Garcia, the recently signed Rodri Hernández, in addition to Ferran Torres who is no longer in the team after his transfer to French PSG.
On the other hand, the president confirmed that the club will hold an act of “exaltation” of the estelada during this Thursday’s match at the Spotify Camp Nou against Athletic Club after what happened last Sunday in Elche between the police and a fan who was carrying this flag.
“The estelada represents the way of thinking of many culés and Catalans. In fact, I would say that Spain defines itself as a social and democratic state of law, in which freedom of expression is within its fundamental rights of the Spanish Constitution. And the estelada, in this sense, is within the framework of freedom of expression,” Laporta warned.
For the leader, this symbol “expresses the desire for freedom and the will to be free of many Catalans and Catalans.” “And, therefore, I understand that it must be respected. This will is part of freedom of expression and, furthermore, that it is a way of expressing ourselves peacefully and that does not generate violence or hatred,” he stressed.
“The estelada must be respected, in my point of view, because it represents our desires for freedom, just as all other symbols that express a certain way of thinking must be respected, as long as it is peaceful, non-violent and does not generate hatred,” he stated.
The Blaugrana club also rejected and condemned “the disproportionate and violent action” of the police last Sunday with a young man who was wearing a stelada to the Martínez Valero to watch the match against Elche CF and to whom they have made themselves “available to help him and his family with whatever is necessary in this regard.”
In this sense, from the club, which already condemned what happened last Monday, they ask, “once the facts are confirmed” and after seeing “shocking and very clear” images, that the agents involved “have their punishment and sanctions as they correspond to these cases.” “And that this act of exaltation at the Spotify Camp Nou now serves once and for all so that the culés and the Catalans can go with the estelada without our physical integrity being in danger and that it also serves once and for all that the estelada is not stigmatized and that it stops being stigmatized by the security and public order forces,” he stated.