Here Yamal was the sympathiser in one of football’s side topics that just won’t go away, nor should it
Lamine Yamal was embroiled in his latest controversy on Monday when he waved a Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s open-top bus parade after clinching their 29th La Liga title. We will get to that in a minute but just how thoroughly has the conflict between Palestine and Israel encased itself around football?
First, there was Pep Guardiola missing a Manchester City press conference to travel to Barcelona and speak in front of a 12,000-strong crowd, condemning conflicts around the world, “the genocide in Palestine”, “our problems as human beings”.
There was Fifa president Gianni Infantino trying and failing in an awkward scene to make Palestine’s and Israel’s representatives shake hands during the governing body’ 76th congress at the end of April. Football fights to be neutral, to be isolated from world events, to “focus on the football”, a mono-themed entertainment. It’s not a battle it is winning.
And why should that be surprising? You are football and you have found yourself in a white vest, great white yak-fur coat and suede boots, sitting in a lofty, steel-framed penthouse restaurant and eating an absurdly large croissant, but the image of this mangled, broken dog you have seen in the street corner just won’t go away. Nor will the sympathising patrons stop talking about it. Fight it all you want.
Here Yamal was the sympathiser, out there in Barcelona holding the flag while he and his teammates travelled through the city on an open-top bus following their league triumph. We have just won the clásico 2-0 and beaten Real Madrid. We have sealed this great club’s 29th top-flight title and are on our way to 100 points in La Liga. Also, there are people dying in Palestine.
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It is not hard to imagine that not everybody was pleased to see it, but the reaction has largely been positive. Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez said: “From the first minute, Spain condemned Hamas’ attacks, and then condemned the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli authorities in the Gaza Strip. And also the illegal occupation through settlements in the West Bank.
“It’s time to comply with international law and end the war, and bring about peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine. Palestine has a right to exist, as we have always said that the State of Israel does.”
And Gabriel Rufian, a Spanish member of parliament said on X: “Lamine Yamal has 42 million followers on Instagram and an enormous impact on even more millions of people around the world.
“People may today have passed from indifference to denouncing the genocide in Gaza just because he waved a flag of Palestine. Like it or not. Let’s celebrate. Good for him.”
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick felt the youngster was mature enough to make his own decisions, although “this I don’t normally like”.
“I spoke with him,” Flick said. “I said if he wants this, it is his decision. He is old enough. He’s 18 years old.
“We have to bear in mind what people expect of us. We are playing football and you can see what the people expect from us. We are playing football to make the people happy. This is for me the first thing we have to do.”
