Barcelona and PSG boycott post-match interviews after racist ‘joke’ aimed at Lamine Yamal
Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona players boycotted their post-match media duties with Spanish broadcaster Movistar after a joke about Lamine Yamal live on air
Players and staff from Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona decided to boycott post-match media duties with Spanish broadcaster Movistar after a racist joke about 16-year-old Barca star Lamine Yamal was told live on air.
Barca won the Champions League quarter-final first leg 3-2 in the French capital, with ex-Leeds star Raphinha scoring twice and the teenager Yamal, already a full Spanish international, impressing on the opposite flank.
Yamal had been featured in the pre-match build-up on Movistar, where he was shown juggling the ball in the warm-up. As footage of him keeping the ball up was broadcast, one pundit said: “Look at the quality, look at the touches from Lamine Yamal.”
It was then that another pundit, the former Atletico Madrid and Argentina goalkeeper German ‘Mono’ Burgos, who used to work as Diego Simeone’s assistant manager at Atletico Madrid, said live on air that “if he doesn’t do well, he ends up at a traffic light”, with the comment – suggesting Yamal would be poor if it weren’t for football – prompting laughter from the other studio guests.
Players and officials from PSG and Barca were made aware of the comment before the match, and made it known to Movistar that they didn’t wish to speak to them after full-time.
Presenter Ricardo Sierra said: “I understand that many spectators expected us to have a conversation or interview with Barca. But PSG and Barça have notified us that they were not going to attend to us because they were tremendously angry with a comment that was made on our set.”
Players and staff from both clubs did speak to other media after the game, and Barca boss Xavi hailed his side’s win which came courtesy of a header from ex-Chelsea man Andreas Christensen.
“Big win, playing away in the Champions League. One game in Barca to go. We played well, we defended well and attacked. Tactically we did really well,” he told TNT Sports.
“They changed a lot of players, we defended [Kylian] Mbappe really well. We create many chances, Raphinha and Robert [Lewandowski] made the difference, Pedri helped us a lot. Very happy and very proud of the team.
“Christensen also with the corner, we did so well. Big win but half work, game in Barca will be tough. PSG one of best teams in world right now.”
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