No referees and no translators: the two UEFA decisions that nobody understands in Spanish football
UEFA is not having the best of times with Spanish football.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid did a lot of damage to the body presided over by Aleksander Ceferin when they embarked on the Superliga. Atletico jumped ship after just a few days while Barca are still treading water. Real Madrid are UEFA's bête noire, and it is of no help to either side to remember that the Whites were one of its founding members in 1954.
In recent years, Ancelotti and Zidane's side have lifted several European Cups despite the UEFA's official media black eye. Rumours point to a black hand in the choice of the Ballon d'Or that went to Rodri when everyone expected it to go to Vinicius. Hence the refusal of the club presided over by Florentino Pérez to travel to Paris to collect the rest of the prizes awarded to the current Champions League winner.
But there are two lesser issues that, however, cast doubt on UEFA's standing with Spanish football. A mysterious sanctioning of referees and the change of stance on translations for Barça since Flick arrived on the Catalan side's bench. All of this is happening without anyone from Nyon having made a statement on the Negreira case or having initiated any kind of proceedings against the club.
Roberto Rosetti, the head of the referees, decided to take a Solomonic decision without listening to the parties after a leak that must have annoyed the European refereeing body. In one of their meetings prior to the start of the season, one of the examples given to the referees was Cucurella's handball in the match against Germany at the European Championship, where Spain ended up beating the hosts. For the European referees, the handball should have been penalised as a handball and a penalty.
When UEFA learned that someone had leaked this point, it decided to go after Spanish referees and leave them without refereeing for two matchdays. Hernández Hernández, Martínez Munuera and Sánchez Martínez have only refereed one match while other colleagues have been on the field in Europe for three matches. The distrust in the Spanish profession is total from UEFA, which is why Gil Manzano was the only Spanish referee in the European Championship with only one match in the whole competition. The ‘neverazo’ was relentless and the referees have not wanted to speak out for fear of reprisals.
The other strange behaviour of UEFA concerns Barcelona. Flick's team is experiencing a tense season at press conferences because the German coach does not speak Spanish and prefers to express himself in English. This forces the presence of a translator at league games who always travels with the team and translates from Catalan or Spanish into English and the answer in the same language as the question asked. The problem comes when Barcelona play in the Champions League and UEFA wants nothing to do with a second language of translation to avoid long media appearances. Apparently, it has demanded that the blaugranas choose a second language other than English and, of course, they have decided that it should be Catalan. This complicates the work of journalists who, if they don't speak English, have no way of knowing what Flick is saying because the translation service only translates from Catalan to English.
This chaotic situation presented by UEFA is welcomed by Barça and the nationalist environment surrounding the team, which does nothing more than isolate the club in a language that nobody speaks outside our borders with the excuse that there is no money for more translators.
UEFA has singled out Spanish football and nothing seems easy. Real Madrid is still waiting for its members to be rewarded for the serious altercations they suffered in the 2022 Paris final, but nobody seems to care about a country that has lost its stripes in Europe.
