Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has described racist chants aimed at Alejandro Balde by Getafe fans as “unbelievable” and “completely wrong”.
The young left-back was abused in the first half of the clash in the Spanish capital, prompting him to approach the referee to inform him of what had been said.
Balde told reporters after the 1-1 draw: “Today I received racist abuse, I don’t think it keeps happening.
“It was in the first half, I warned the referee about the racial abuse and he activated the protocol and in the second half there was no more.
Flick was asked about his reaction to the situation when he addressed the media, and the first Bayern Munich and the Germany manager understandably stood by his player and called for action to be taken against those responsible.
“There’s no place for that in football or in life. It’s unbelievable,” Flick said. “In the times we live in now it’s completely wrong, those who do this should stay at home, I think we should fight them, that’s the best.
“But the people around them can also do something because it’s unfair. It’s not the respect we want to live with, I think everyone can do something.”
BarcelonaThe manager also touched on what was another disappointing run of results in La Liga, failing to capitalize on Atletico Madrid’s surprise defeat by Leganes on Friday night. There was more bad news on Sunday as the Clasico opponents Real Madrid demolished Las Palmas 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu to reclaim top spot from Atleti, seven points ahead of third-placed Barca.
“I’m not worried. I’m aware of the situation, I know we’ve dropped a lot of points in the last games, it’s not what we want and we can do much better,” said Flick. “But in the end, you can see we’ve had a really good start to the season, the new year, and I’m happy about that.
“But now we have to show it. We have to show it in Lisbon because it’s a very important game. To get three points there means we go to the next round. That’s what we want, but we have to play much better.”
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2025-01-20 04:00:00
