Barcelona football club of Spain were crowned La Liga champions following their win over Espanyol in a match they desperately needed to win to secure their 27th league title. Two Barcelona players, Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto, thanked Barcelona fans in Russia for their support through the long season.
In the video, the players spoke in Spanish language. It was eventually subtitled and made available on Telegram, by Okko Sport, the Russian broadcaster for La Liga.
In a swift reaction, Shakhtar Donetsk, a notable European football club criticised Barcelona, asking the two players and the club to quickly make genuine apology to Ukraine and its people.
La Liga has been at the forefront of the fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2022. Additionally, it has been successful in encouraging La Liga teams to support Ukraine and its people.
Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who plays for Barcelona, has shown support for Ukraine throughout the season. He donned a captain’s armband designed in Ukrainian national colours in the matches in which he led the team.
“For all people who value freedom and peace, this is a time of solidarity with the victims of military aggression in Ukraine”, he said in stern criticism of Russia.
Furthermore, Barcelona’s archrival Real Madrid raised over $1 million through its “All for Ukraine” campaign. The money was in support of Ukraine, a country in dire need of humanitarian aid.
The Chief Executive Officer of Shaktar Donestk, Sergei Palkin, thinks that the two players’ actions should continue to be criticised and risk erasing the earlier support for Ukraine.
“Ukrainian football club Shakhtar expresses its outrage concerning the posted video message from Barcelona players Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto with words of gratitude to football fans from Russia,” Palkin said.
“We hope that FC Barcelona is aware that their support of a country such as Russia at this time is completely unacceptable. We expect the club to admit its mistake and avoid similar situations in the future.
“It is the second year of a bloody and unjustifiable military invasion by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians became victims of this war; dozens of cities were destroyed; and millions of people lost their homes and became refugees. The whole world united to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and condemned the invasion. Every day we do everything to hasten the victory of Ukraine and to protect the European values of freedom and democracy.”
He continued, “And then we see the players of one of the world’s top clubs, Barcelona, address the Russians, expressing their gratitude and support for them. We consider this an intolerable and simply immoral act. We must remember that no victory on the football field is worth the life of a child, and no money earned in the football market is worth the destroyed cities and the wrecked lives of people.”
