Why Spanish Football Ignores All the Rules

So we’ve seen the melt down coming for some time. A small number of Spanish super clubs have ruled the European competitions breeding a sense of invincibility, entitlement. So many clubs begin with Real, claiming a magnificent aristocratic heritage. Barcelona have defied the obligations of the balance sheet. Popular sentiment and the voluble Spanish football media dictate policy. But for the fans la juma inflames matchdays. The Real Madrid manager’s seat is too hot for the steady and assured Ancelotti.

We all saw it coming. There is something rotten in the state of Spanish football! The tragedians call the condition hubris. And nemesis always waits in the wings!

In 2017 France24 reported ‘Homophobia Permeates the Football World in Spain’. Frontiers in Psychology found homophobia to be endemic in Spanish youth. In 2019 The Guardian reported the discovery of widespread match fixing in the top three Spanish leagues. The clubs denied wrongdoing but La Liga de Futbol Professional reported its suspicions to the police and arrests were made. And finally earlier this year Spanish football refused initially to take action against the racial abusers of Vinicius Jr. who was reduced to tears on the pitch in Valencia! We couldn’t find a single black man on La Liga coaching staffs (or a non-white Spaniard in the other European leagues either!) A Syrian journalist recently observed ‘Spain is obviously a racist country’

And now we witness Spains greatest shame! In what should have been their finest hour Spain has demonstrated its passionate contempt for women. Rubiales strongly denied giving any offense for the longest time. Eventually world opinion insisted Spain throw out this disgraced pervert. But witness the long survival of Vilda and Rubiales in the face of their shameful culpability. Me too! just doesn’t seem to work in Spain. Bullying and abuse go unpunished for the longest time. Last years change in Spain’s laws to define all non-consensual sex as rape was a monumental step. But the problems in Spanish football and Spanish society in general have deep roots. Entitlement and prejudice have gone unaddressed for too long. Who can predict what future nemesis awaits?