Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has compared remarks about his lack of hair to those about the colour somebody’s skin, following insults during their Nations League celebrations.
La Roja returned from the Netherlands with their first trophy in over decade on Monday night, and were given a racous reception back in Madrid, with a few notable exceptions. Gavi was met with anti-Barcelona chants as he took to the microphone, while de la Fuente was insulted due to his being bald.
Chants of ‘bald, bald, bald’ could be heard at the WiZink Arena as he was about to speak. Later in the week he admitted he was not happy with it, as was covered by MD.
“You couldn’t hear well. Behind all the speakers and such, you could not hear it well. Those things bother me. Rude manners and disrespect bother me. There were 20 maniacs who were being annoying. It always happens in these places, that a few people are irritating and the rest are silent.”
He then made a quite shocking comparison.
“There was a magical atmosphere, but this is objectionable and denounceable. What would have happened if someone had yelled ‘black, black, black’…?”
De la Fuente’s remarks feed into a wider culture that has been present in recent months of not being able to differentiate racism and other insults. Due to the weight of history, racism quite clearly carries far more weight than insulting someone for other characteristics, lamentable though that may be.
However the habit of characterising racism as just another form of insult shocked many outside of Spain in the aftermath of racist incidents involving Vinicius Junior. These comments only further underline a lack of understanding or empathy.