I wish I could make this story up but this is 100% true. ESPN FC reports that the Liga de Futbol Profesional (LFP) will investigate Barcelona for their fans making “inappropriate chants” during this past weekends Barcelona/Levante game. Barcelona fans allegedly chanted, “Cristiano is a drunk” during the game.
The chant was a result of Ronaldo’s extracurricular activities after Real Madrid lost 4-0 to rival Atletico Madrid. Ronaldo went out and celebrated his 30th birthday by going out and partying after the defeat sparking criticism from fans and the media.
The LFP is taking a hard line on fan behavior because of the death of a Deportivo fan as the result of a fight between Deportivo and Atletico Madrid fans last year. Heads of the LFP said, “insulting chants and songs constitute symbolic violence, which can lead to physical violence.”
While it’s great that the LFP is taking offensive chanting seriously, I’m confused as to why they’re targeting this. Unless I’m missing something, “Cristiano is a drunk” is not racist, sexist or homophobic. Those would be legitimate reasons as to investigate chants and fan behavior. I haven’t heard about Ronaldo going to rehab or having a drinking problem so common sense tells me that this is general banter and rival fans are just having fun of someone who went out after a 4-0 loss.
I understand where the LFP is coming from because they want to make sure nobody else dies as a result of fan behavior at one of their games, but this seems like a situation where the LFP is being too PC and is carrying an extreme overreaction soon after a tragedy. I’m not trying to make light of what happened and I agree that no one should be killed at a soccer game, but the gap between hardly doing anything when a group is violent and makes racist, sexist or homophobic chants (like what other soccer leagues and confederations have done) and making fun of someone for partying after a bad loss is very wide. Let’s just have some common sense and meet somewhere in the middle.
(ESPN FC)
