YOUR VIEWS

I write as a neutral and dispassionate follower of football to comment on the Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona held in Valencia on 20th April 2011. I have long been an admirer of the artistry and elegance brought to the game by Barcelona and the Spanish national team in particular. I started to watch the Copa del Rey final expecting to see an exhibition of football worthy of the occasion but instead was bitterly disappointed.

The game was only minutes old when the pattern emerged of reckless aggression in the tackle on the one hand countered by cynical attempts to deceive the referee (often successful) on the other, coupled with petulance and pettiness and the continual harassing and haranguing of the referee by numerous members of both teams. The referee was treated with total disrespect throughout. Even if a referee makes mistakes (everyone is human), if the players do not respect his authority then the result will be anarchy. As it was, the number of yellow cards (culminating in one red card) awarded indicated how close the match did come to anarchy.

The referee could have exerted his authority by warning both captains personally of their duty to control their players.

I do not know what if any sanctions will be taken against the overall behaviour of the players and their treatment of the referee, but I would suggest that a number of them deserve to be heavily financially penalised. Above all, in my opinion the whole event was demeaned by the players' behaviour, not least because it took place in front of their King and was broadcast to an audience of 140 million people. Sadly, such behaviour is nowadays typical at many levels of the game of football (and has a harmful influence on youngsters) but I had fondly imagined something better from these two great teams. That the usual celebrations and festivities followed the end of the match and no one seemed affected as I was by how it was conducted is an indictment of the so-called ‘beautiful game'.

R.M. Gilbert, Andratx