Ben Pawlowski
WOULDN’T it be nice if Spain could celebrate a magnificent sporting success without ruining it all in the aftermath?
Last year, former President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales infamously planted a non-consensual kiss on Spanish star Jenni Hermoso at the awards ceremony for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final.
The fiasco, for which the disgraced Rubiales will soon stand trial, massively overshadowed the women’s side’s brilliant victory.
One year on, Spain’s men’s side lit up Euro 2024 as a diverse, youthful team played with magnificent maturity and spell-binding skill to breeze through the group stage and knockout rounds.
La Roja deservedly secured a record-breaking fourth European Championship after defeating England 2-1, but once more the airwaves have been dominated not by a celebration of sporting brilliance, but rather an unnecessary scandal.
Celebrating at an open-top trophy parade in central Madrid, captain Alvaro Morata and Manchester City midfielder Rodri led the team in a chorus of ‘Gibraltar es Español’ (‘Gibraltar is Spanish’), much to the delight of thousands of adoring fans.
Unsurprisingly, this insulting chant has provoked a diplomatic crisis, with the Rock’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo among those to have blasted the singalong as ‘rancid’ and an ‘old trope from the days of General Franco’.
Picardo, and his fellow 30,000 Gibraltarians, have every right to feel aggrieved given the basic facts – Gibraltar is British, and always will be.
The notes are Pounds Sterling, the pubs serve fish and chips, the post boxes are red and the high streets include shops such as Next, Matalan and Marks & Spencer.
But it is not just in culture where Gibraltar screams Britain – the tiny Overseas Territory can lean on the weight of history, too.
Like land exchanged all over the world, Britain acquired Gibraltar legitimately through the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 following the War of the Spanish Succession.
READ MORE: Why is Gibraltar British and not a part of Spain? All you need to know about the Treaty of Utrecht
The binding decree guaranteed that Britain would hold Gibraltar forever – no ifs, no buts.
That principle has been reaffirmed countless times since, not least with two democratic referendums on Gibraltarian sovereignty which have overwhelmingly shown a commitment to retaining the Rock’s British links.
By chanting that Gibraltar belongs to Spain, the men’s national football team are not just proving themselves to be ignorant – they are siding with some of the most unsavory characters in Spanish political history
Who could forget, for example, that it was General Franco, the fascist dictator, who was the greatest believer in Spain’s claim, shown most memorably of all when he closed the border for over a decade simply because Gibraltar dared to have a constitution.
Franco’s ideological successors, far-right Vox, were likewise eager to use last Sunday’s triumph to revive debates over Gibraltar’s sovereignty.
A tweet posted on their official X account in the aftermath of the match said ‘European Champions’ in front of a deliberately provocative picture of the iconic Rock.
Do the Spanish football side really want to associate themselves with these politicians?
After all, Spain would not have won the tournament without the immigration and ethnic diversity that parties like Vox rally against.
Spain’s start of the tournament, 17-year old Lamine Yamal, was born to a mother from Equatorial Guinea and a father from Morocco, the latter of whom was arrested and fined over €500 last year for throwing eggs at Vox supporters.
He was born in a neighbourhood in Catalunya described by Vox politicians as a ‘multi-cultural sh**hole’.
Likewise, 21-year old Nico Williams was born to Ghanaian parents who entered Spain by climbing the border into the north African enclave of Melilla.
The national side, as their manager Luis de la Fuente pointed out, reflects a modern, multicultural, diverse and inclusive Spain.
By touting the policies of the far-right, as they have done with the Gibraltar chants, the players are doing themselves and their supporters a disservice.
They must apologise to Gibraltarians, educate themselves and right the wrongs of their actions.
If Gib is where “The notes are Pounds Sterling, the pubs serve fish and chips, the post boxes are red ….” I am surprised that any Spanish person would want to claim it!
You have unnecessarily attracted attention to a minority from a bunch of very talented footballers, who deservedly won the European Cup, and have come nowhere in the political field.