While Saudi Arabia has been hosting the Spanish Super Cup since 2020, several controversies have erupted among our Iberian neighbors in recent hours, before and after the first semi-final between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
Saudi Arabia has spent hundreds of millions of euros to develop football in its country and give it a good image. A championship now studded with stars, and European competitions which come to compete there. This is particularly the case of the Spanish Super Cup, scene of a magnificent match last night between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, which has been relocated to Saudi Arabia since 2020. Despite now 3 years of regular presence, Spain is still surprised by certain practices and there are numerous controversies this Thursday following the events of the day before.
Starting with the whistles during the minute of silence, before kick-off, in tribute to Franz Beckenbauer . Why did the KSU stadium in Riyadh whistle at this moment? Beckenbauer had not expressed a negative opinion about the Saudi country and its recruitment strategy. Even in Germany, we do not understand this reaction. Perhaps he was wrong to be German, like a certain Toni Kroos , who was booed throughout the game. For the Real Madrid midfielder, the reason is known. He had criticized the kingdom, and the players who gave in to the Saudi sirens in the prime of life.
Critics rain in Spain
As a result, the public attacked Kroos throughout the game, even making fun of a fall in the second period . But that's not all. The Spanish press also wanted to highlight certain differences in treatment, particularly with regard to women. Star journalist Helena Condis was moved by her experience at her hotel . “I'm a little angry. At the hotel I went to ask if I could go to the gym and was told that women could only go there from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Here, I go to bed at 4 o'clock, so I slept for two hours to go to training. They told me 'no, no, these are the rules'. They told me that tomorrow, if I want it, they will open a cubbyhole for me, that is to say a room of two square meters where there are no weights, no elastics, nothing, so I can train alone. A country that was going to open up to the world… well, in an international hotel, they lock me in a storage room because I can't train with my colleagues, with whom I am now in a room ,” a- she confided to the microphone of Cadena COPE radio.
FC Barcelona will face Osasuna this Thursday evening in Riyadh, and the club has already alerted its LGBTQ+ fans, asking them to be “cautious and discreet” , in view of the policy, condemned by Human Right Watchs, applied in Saudi Arabia. The organization of the Spanish Super Cup is therefore not a guarantee of good publicity for the Kingdom, already mocked in recent weeks following the supposed desire to leave several newly arrived stars (Henderson, Firmino and Benzema). ).