What is a guard of honor in football? Why is Atletico Madrid refusing to recognize La Liga champions Real Madrid?
Genuine Madrid clinched the 2021-22 La Liga title previous weekend with its dwelling win in excess of Espanyol, 15 details above any person else in the Spanish top flight with just four matches remaining.
It is the 35th league title in Genuine Madrid’s club background, and tends to make Carlo Ancelotti the initial supervisor in environment football to get a league title in all 5 of the Huge 5 European leagues.
In quite a few European soccer leagues, it is custom to recognize the title winner with a guard of honor in the sport right after a group clinches the championship. Nevertheless, Real Madrid will not get a person this time.
Los Blancos come about to enjoy rivals Atletico Madrid on May 8 in just one of the fiercest community derbies in globe football.
Extra: Gareth Bale absent from Real Madrid league title celebrations
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What is a guard of honor in soccer?
When a group wins a league championship, or occasionally even for a further title, the club’s next opponent is envisioned to fork out tribute to the accomplishment.
In the champion’s subsequent fixture, the opponent is intended to honor the title winners by forming two lines and applauding, building a tunnel for the winners to wander via upon entering the discipline.
It’s a tiny gesture, but a single which is deemed very good sportsmanship and has turn into an founded custom during the many years.
Just two decades ago, Leganes gave Actual Madrid a guard of honor in the final match of the calendar year for profitable the league title. Authentic Madrid had confirmed the crowning accomplishment the week prior with a win over Villarreal, eventually finishing five factors over next-put Barcelona.
And on May possibly 7, Barcelona even gave Copa del Rey champions Actual Betis a guard of honor just after they won Spain’s domestic cup title past weekend.
Listed here was the pasillo Barça gave to Betis for successful the Copa del Rey.
We anticipate that the pasillo will be a warm subject matter in the Madrid Derby tomorrow night…#LLL
🧡🇪🇸⚽️pic.twitter.com/34bNWcCI5V— La Liga Lowdown 🧡🇪🇸⚽️ (@LaLigaLowdown) May possibly 7, 2022
At football finals it is really prevalent for the newly topped champion to give their opponent a guard of honor as Liverpool did when they honored Tottenham Hotspur in 2019:
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Why Atletico Madrid refuse to give Actual Madrid a guard of honor
It appears to be as if the Madrid derby rivalry trumps the time-honored tradition of recognizing the league champions.
Atletico Madrid launched a scathing statement emphatically confirming the club will not give True Madrid a guard of honor.
“Some people want to turn what was born as a gesture of recognition to the winner into a community toll to be paid out by their rivals, with the goal of humiliation,” the Atletico Madrid assertion examine. “Below no situation are Atletico Madrid likely to collaborate in this endeavor at mockery in which the true values of sport are completely forgotten. It also encourages rigidity and confrontation amongst fans.
“We have been involved in various identical situations in the latest many years just after successful diverse titles, like two league titles, and on some occasions there was some form of tribute from the rival staff to our champions and on some others there was not. But under no circumstances was this kind of an exaggerated and artificial expectation or controversy produced as what we have been enduring in new weeks.”
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone backed the club’s stance with his opinions in the pregame press conference.
“The fact is what the club stated in a push release, conveying flawlessly, congratulating Genuine Madrid above all, the footballers, the specialized team, due to the fact they have finished a terrific position,” Simeone stated.
“We have respect for Madrid but a lot more for our people.
“I you should not know if this is represented in other earth championships. Every culture is diverse. The Spanish a single has this guard of honor for their rivals, [but] as an instance, the place I occur from we really don’t use it. We live in a different way, way too.”
Much more: True Madrid stuns Male Metropolis to get to one more Champions League final
Refusal to give a guard of honor in recent La Liga history
There are precedents for this tactic from Atletico Madrid.
In 2018, Real Madrid them selves refused to give Barcelona a guard of honor for winning the league title, with then-captain Sergio Ramos expressing, “We are building far too significantly fuss about all this. Barca have the title, which is what they needed, but there will be no guard of honor. Whole halt.”
It had absent the other way the yr in advance of, with Barcelona refusing to honor the tradition for True Madrid after Los Blancos won the FIFA Club Entire world Cup. The clarification was that Barcelona was not taking part in the competitors, so Barcelona would not figure out Serious Madrid for the achievement.
“In this club, the guard of honor is normally created when we take part in the Champions League or La Liga…and this is not the scenario,” said Barcelona director of institutional relations Guillermo Amor.
