uefa

July 1 2015

Dear Ms. Anna Bordiugova (Ethics and disciplinary inspector) and the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body,

For several years now, and for reasons which are beyond the scope of this letter, on at least five separate occasions several million Catalans inside their territory have been campaigning for their right, as a people, to decide on their political future. They have done so in a totally peaceful spirit, and call for this right to be exercised in a democratic way, by voting in ballet boxes in accordance with regular procedures.

(To continue, click on "Més informació"!) 

Given the repeated refusal of the Spanish authorities to even allow the opinion of the Catalans to be formally expressed (freedom of expression is a fundamental human right), it is not surprising that tens of thousands of sports-loving Catalans express their opinion publicly, yet peacefully, in stadiums in Catalonia, in Spain and abroad. Such collective outbursts are in no way promoted by the clubs involved; they have virtually become a tradition, pending the referendum on independence that, I repeat, Spain refuses to allow (unlike, for instance, the Scots in the United Kingdom). 

For all these reasons, it is for me quite shocking to read that UEFA might take action against a football club that is being subjected, moreover, to a whole series of unprecedented attacks on legal, fiscal etc. grounds by the Spanish authorities. 

Please bear these facts, and the political situation, in mind. 

Yours sincerely, 

 "La UEFA expedienta al Barça por la exhibición de ‘esteladas’ en Berlín", El País, 30 de juny de 2015.

"El informe está firmado por la abogada ucraniana Anna Bordiugova, miembro del equipo de inspectores de la comisión disciplinaria de la UEFA que presidente el chipriota Chris Georghiades. Se da la circunstancia, sin embargo, de que en el informe del delegado de la UEFA en aquel partido, el holandés Harry M. Been, se destacaba el “excelente comportamiento” de los aficionados del Barça, así como que en la grada azulgrana no se utilizaron artefactos de pirotecnia y los cánticos de su afición “no fueron discriminatorios”."