Heated atmosphere ahead of Sevilla-Madrid. Has violence been incited?

Sometimes a lot, other times very little. I can’t help thinking about this when I see the uproar caused by the controversial video that Sevilla published this weekend to encourage its supporters to go to the stadium for the Copa del Rey clash against Real Madrid. A video that has already caused unease at the Real Madrid headquarters, as it is understood to be a provocative video that could incite violence.

In the video, Sevilla’s players are seen painting themselves red and white in what one outlet described as “a sort of blood” and adopting a warrior attitude to face the match. Throughout the video, the voice of a commentator is heard saying that Sevilla needs the fans to win and asking them to come to the stadium, and, to top off the most controversial part, the phrase “vamos deixar-te sem o título” (let’s leave you without the title, in Portuguese) appears.

There has been great unease in Madrid, and some are even calling for sanctions against Sevilla. Is it really that serious? What some interpret as “blood” is, in my opinion, nothing more than the red and white of Sevilla’s colours, and the warrior attitude of the players is no different from the attitude of grit and courage that coaches like Caparrós ask of their players, or from that “stop Messi by fair means or foul” that the director of Marca demanded be done about Messi.

What could be more controversial is the phrase in Portuguese, aimed either at Mourinho, at Cristiano, at both, or even at Madrid’s entire Portuguese colony. The first time I watched the video, I instantly thought that the last part was superfluous in what was otherwise a nice appeal to the fans.

However, I can’t stop thinking that Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two icons of the current Real Madrid, have claimed so much prominence within the club that perhaps it is almost normal. After all, the phrase only says “let’s leave you without the title”; it isn’t “we’re going after you” or anything like it.

Perhaps I am wrong, because there really was no need to put that phrase in the video, but perhaps it is that I have become used to the media in Madrid and Barcelona generating such a level of tension that I have become desensitised to a video like this one which, by comparison, sincerely seems trivial. How can one write editorials as incendiary as those that outlets like Marca or Sport habitually publish and then protest about something as trivial as this?

Unfortunately, in the world of Spanish football and sports journalism, it seems that values such as sportsmanship or the cleanliness of sport are losing their worth, becoming mere missiles that we use or discard whenever it suits our interests. Certainly, there are many attitudes to criticise in our country’s football, but if this video is one of them, it is surely at the very bottom of the list.

But this is only my opinion, of course. What do you all think about this matter?