CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Barça and PSG refuse to speak post game with Spanish network following Burgos comment
Both the Movistar+ network and the former Atletico player and assistant coach were obliged to make formal apologies for the Yamal comment.
After Barcelona’s win over PSG in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals in Paris, both clubs informed Spanish rights holder and Champions League broadcaster Movistar Plus+ that no member of their teams would speak to the network because of a classist comment made by analyst German ‘Mono’ Burgos relating to Lamine Yamal in the preview. As the Barça striker concluded his pre-game warm-up, the former Atletico Madrid goalkeeper and assistant coach said that if the young Barça player fails to make the grade as a footballer “he could end up doing skills at traffic lights”.
Just after the ill-judged comment became a major talking point on social media, Burgos apologized for his words: “I wish I had had the ability that this boy has. It was a comment without trying to hurt anyone. We talk about football, nothing else. If he felt offended, I am sorry and I apologize publicly. It was not my intention. Sometimes humor gets you into trouble. In these times you have to adapt to everything and that’s what we are doing”.
Movistar+ reporter in Paris Ricardo Sierra was then forced to explain to live to viewers, that no members of either team would be speaking to the network in the traditional post match interviews: “I understand that many viewers expected us to have a conversation or interview with Barça players but UEFA, PSG and Barça have notified us that they were not going to speak to us as they were extremely angry with a comment that was made on our network during the match preview”.
Hours later, Movistar Plus+ issued a statement apologizing and affirming that “the platform will take the appropriate measures to ensure that these events do not happen again”.
Burgos himself also posted an extensive apology on his Instagram account concluding with: “My intention was not to denigrate Lamine Yamal, quite the contrary. Soccer unites everything and everyone, that’s why it is the best sport because it does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation. This is what I believe in”!