UEFA to investigate Rodri and Morata for chanting at Euro 2019 [Video]

UEFA announced on Tuesday the start of “disciplinary proceedings” against Spanish national team players Álvaro Morata and Rodrigo Hernández on various charges in reference to chants of ‘Gibraltar, Español’ during the official celebration of the Euro 2024 title before their fans on July 15 in Madrid.

Both players, team captain in Morata’s case and best player of the tournament – Rodrigo -, are accused of four “charges” for this reason, as specified by UEFA: violation of the “general principles of conduct”; “violation of the basic rules of decent conduct”; “use of sporting events for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature”; and “bringing the sport of football, and UEFA in particular, into disrepute”.

“The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) will decide on the matter in due course,” UEFA said in a statement.

In the two most recent examples of sanctions for the same charges, at Euro 2024, both Turkish defender Merih Demiral, for celebrating a goal with a gesture from a Turkish ultra-nationalist group (‘The Grey Wolves’) in the round of 16 match against Austria, and Albanian international Mirlind Daku, for shouting against Serbia and North Macedonia after the 2-2 draw with Croatia, were banned for two UEFA competition matches with their national teams “for which they would otherwise be eligible”.

In Article 11 of the Disciplinary Regulations, concerning the principles of conduct, UEFA states that “all entities and persons subject to these regulations must respect the Laws of the Game, as well as the Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of UEFA, and comply with the principles of ethical conduct, loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship.”

It also considers punishable behaviour that “is insulting or otherwise infringes the basic rules of decent conduct”, the use “of sporting events for non-sporting events” and behaviour that brings “disrepute” to football “and UEFA in particular”, as stated in sections B, C and D of the aforementioned article 11.

In point 3 of the aforementioned section of the Disciplinary Regulations, UEFA explains that “infringements of the aforementioned principles and rules will be sanctioned by disciplinary measures”, without specifying the scale of the determinations that may be adopted in this regard.

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