In a controversial event on Monday night, players of Spain’s Euro 2024-winning football team have led crowd chants of “¡Gibraltar es español!” (Gibraltar is Spanish) during a victory rally in the Spanish capital city of Madrid.
The government of Gibraltar has sharply criticized these “rancid remarks”, while the overseas territory’s Football Association announced it will file a formal complaint to UEFA over the incident.
“His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar is disappointed to note that several players of the Spanish male national football team celebrated their European Cup win with chants of rancid remarks about Gibraltar,” read a statement from the Gibraltar government.
“This is a totally unnecessary mixing of a great sporting success with discriminatory political statements that are hugely offensive to Gibraltarians,” it further adds.
On their part, some Spanish politicians, particularly from conservative and far-right circles, endorsed the players’ remarks. Madrid’s conservative mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, told Spanish TV channel Telecinco that the players “didn’t say anything that most Spaniards don’t believe.”
On the other hand, Javier Ortega-Smith, a senior figure in the far-right Vox party, retweeted a video of the chant with the comment: “Sí.”
Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory with a population of over 32,000, located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, has been under British control since 1713. It has ever since been claimed by Spain, sparking occasional tensions between the two countries.