Real Madrid stars refuse to wear solidarity shirt for Ceuta

During Tuesday's round of La Liga, Real Madrid posted a message on their website:

"Before kick-off in the match between Elche and Real Madrid, the players of both teams walked out into the Manuel Martínez Valero stadium wearing shirts with the message 'We are all Caballas', in solidarity with Ceuta".

"Caballas" – mackerels – is the nickname of the inhabitants of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, located on the Moroccan north coast. Since July, the city has been the scene of a political and diplomatic crisis, since tens of thousands of Moroccans - mostly young men - entered the enclave.

In many places in Spain, the demonstration trains against the government's actions in the matter have rolled on for a long time in recent weeks.

In other words, the shirts, worn by a handful of clubs in the last round of La Liga, were meant to support the local people of Ceuta.

But three Real Madrid stars refused to share the message.

Kylian Mbappé, Ibrahima Konaté and Vinícius Júnior pulled up the specially printed t-shirt over the chest so that the entire message was not visible.

A quick question of order arises here: What is Spanish football up to?

The situation in Ceuta has created a crisis within the EU during the summer. Spain was quickly scolded by several other member states – Sweden's migration minister Johan Forsell was one of those who took to chest tones – for not being able to guard its borders.

But the background would turn out to be more complex than that.

The origin of the situation is not fully investigated. Moroccan authorities have dismissed accusations that they are behind the crisis, claiming that it is human smuggling networks that have encouraged or even manipulated young Moroccans to get to Ceuta. Young men on site have told DN that they were urged by Moroccan police to try to get into the enclave. The EU's External Action Service has found traces of Russian, Israeli and generally far-right disinformation campaigns that quickly spread the narrative that Spain's border security had collapsed, to harm Spain, create a migration crisis and – by extension – destabilize the EU.

In Ceuta, where more than a third of the population are Spaniards of Arab origin, several racist incidents have taken place in recent weeks. During protests in the city, journalists reporting from the protests have also been harassed both verbally and physically by protesters.

So far the politics. Now to the football – and the people.

During the last century, millions of Africans have left the African continent to seek a better life in Europe. Two of these are Kylian Mbappé's grandmother and grandfather, who came to France from Algeria after the war of independence in the 1960s. Mbappé's father Wilfrid was born in Cameroon and only became a French citizen in 2005.

Ibrahima Konaté comes from Mali, which, like Morocco, was under French rule during the colonial years and for several years now is one of the most common countries of origin for asylum seekers in Spain.

The Brazilian fixed star Vinícius Júnior is, as many know, Spanish football's most vocal anti-racist.

There are, of course, several legitimate positions when it comes to migration, although football's administrators are usually quick to claim that sport and politics do not belong together. But the situation in Ceuta has so many geopolitical elements that it cannot be reduced to just a question of this.

The solidarity many Spaniards expressed to the local population in Ceuta since last summer is tainted with a long line of anti-Arab and racist expressions in the demonstration trains.

When Real Betis' Moroccan player Abde Ezzalzouli pulled on the Ceuta shirt in Monday's away game against Villarreal, he received massive criticism and was called a "traitor" by supporters in his home country.

There is still something interesting about Spanish football's we and dom perspective in this initiative.

After all, La Liga is no longer just a place for the occasional superstar with a non-European nationality. Celebrated soccer stars like Lamine Yamal and the Williams brothers can pull on the Spanish national team shirt precisely because their parents migrated to Spain from the African continent. Nico and Iñaki Williams' parents even climbed over the fence in Melilla, another Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast, to seek asylum in Spain.

That so many La Liga clubs have such poor ball sense is actually surprising.