Alvaro Morata and Rodri have been given one-match bans by UEFA for misconduct during Spain’s European Championship winners’ parade in Madrid.
Video footage widely circulated on social media showed the duo chanting: “It’s Spanish, Gibraltar is Spanish” — referencing the area at the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, which is British territory.
Gibraltar’s Football Association (FA) subsequently lodged a complaint with European football’s governing body UEFA, citing “extremely provocative and insulting” behaviour during the Euro 2024 victory celebrations a day after Spain’s 2-1 victory over England in the Berlin final.
Morata, 31, and Rodri, 28, are now ineligible to feature in Spain’s UEFA Nations League match against Serbia on September 5.
The Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) later “denounced this authoritarian and unfair decision” against the pair, who it said “freely expressed a personal opinion” and whose rights have been “clearly violated”. The AFE added that it will send letters to the European Union and the Spanish office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
A UEFA statement issued on Wednesday said the pair will serve a suspension for “failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sporting events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute”.
The Gibraltar FA said UEFA’s decision “sends a clear message that football must remain a platform for promoting peace, understanding, and fair play, free from divisive and offensive actions such as the chants”.
Gibraltar became a British territory in 1713, after Anglo-Dutch forces had captured the peninsula from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession nine years previously.
In 1967, its population rejected Spanish sovereignty in a referendum and in 2002 they rejected shared sovereignty between Spain and the United Kingdom.
Spain still claim sovereignty over the peninsula.
The punishments have no effect on either player’s domestic campaigns. Rodri’s Manchester City begin the new Premier League season at Chelsea on August 18, while Morata will make his Serie A debut for AC Milan against Torino on August 17.
(Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
