SPECULUM VERUM
– Ukraine has been outraged by a video of FC Barcelona in which two of its players, Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto, thank Russian fans for their support in messages recorded in Spanish and subtitled in Russian.
The Ukrainian media have echoed the video in question and some clubs, like Shakhtar Donetsk, They have demanded that the Barcelona entity apologize. The feeling of offense is widespread and the news has jumped to international media such as The Guardian, who collect with perplexity the Barcelona initiative.
“Greetings to all the fans of Barça in Russia. See you soon. All the best”. “Russia fans, thank you very much for your support and encouragement. This is also part of you, so hopefully we can get many more”, say both footballers.
“Shakhtar expresses its indignation at the video message posted by Barcelona players Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto with words of thanks to Russian football fans”, said the executive president of the Ukrainian club, Sergei Palkin. "We hope that FC Barcelona is aware that its support for a country like Russia at this time is completely unacceptable.. We hope the club admits its mistake and avoids similar situations in the future.".
the tone is furious. “It is the second year of a bloody and unjustifiable military invasion by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine”, Palkin said. “Thousands of Ukrainians became victims of this war, dozens of cities were destroyed, millions of people lost their homes and became refugees. The whole world came together to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and condemned the invasion. Every day we do our best to hasten Ukraine's victory and protect the European values of freedom and democracy..
“And then we see the players from one of the best clubs in the world, the Barcelona, address the russians, expressing your gratitude and support. We consider this an intolerable act and simply immoral.. We must remember that no victory on the football field is worth the life of a child., no money made in the football market is worth the destroyed cities and the shattered lives of the people”.
In a row, Shakhtar shows the two Barça players and two soldiers receiving treatment for war injuries in Barcelona.
Dynamo kyiv have also reacted angrily.. “We sincerely recommend FC Barcelona players to get closer to their Russian fans and apply to participate in the Mordor championship.”, says the statement, accompanied by a photo of the Chernihiv Desna stadium destroyed by Russian fans. Mordor is a fictitious country belonging to the imaginary created by the writer J. R. R. Tolkien, where important events of 'The Lord of the Rings' take place. The tweet is accompanied by hashtags such as 'disrespect’ and 'Russia is a terrorist state'.
for his part, el Metalist Kharkiv, published that “we invite FC Barcelona to Kharkiv. Russia, the one they love, is only a few tens of seconds from the rocket”.