- Barcelona won their 27th La Liga title
- Balde & Roberto thanked Russian fans
- Shakhtar demands apology from Barcelona
WHAT HAPPENED? The Catalan club won their 27th La Liga crown with four games to spare after beating Espanyol 4-2 on May 15. Following their triumph, Balde and Roberto recorded messages in Spanish, which were shared via the messaging platform Telegram by the Russian broadcaster for La Liga. The two players expressed their gratitude to the Russian fans for their support throughout the season. This has enraged Shakhtar Donetsk, and the Ukranian club have demanded an apology from the La Liga outfit.
WHAT THEY SAID: "Ukrainian football club Shakhtar expresses its outrage concerning the posted video message from Barcelona players Alejandro Balde and Sergi Roberto with words of gratitude to football fans from Russia," stated Shakhtar chief executive, Sergei Palkin. "We hope that FC Barcelona is aware that their support of a country such as Russia at this time is completely unacceptable. We expect the club to admit its mistake and avoid similar situations in the future."
Palkin added: "It is a second year of a bloody and unjustifiable military invasion by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians became victims of this war, dozens of cities were destroyed, millions of people lost their homes and became refugees. The whole world united to support Ukraine and Ukrainian people and condemned the invasion. Every day we do everything to hasten the victory of Ukraine and to protect the European values of freedom and democracy.
“And then we see the players of one of the world’s top clubs, Barcelona, address the Russians, expressing their gratitude and support to them. We consider this an intolerable and simply immoral act. We must remember that no victory on the football field is worth the life of a child, no money earned in the football market is worth the destroyed cities and the wrecked lives of people."
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Several football clubs and players across the globe, including Robert Lewandowski, showed support for Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country. The Polish striker put out a message on social media standing in solidarity with Ukraine and even wore a captain’s armband in the country’s colours of blue and yellow.
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GettyWHAT NEXT? It remains to be seen whether Barca will respond to Shakhtar, with head coach Xavi currently focused on wrapping up the season in the best possible fashion. The new Liga champions will complete their campaign with fixtures against Real Valladolid, Mallorca and Celta Vigo.