Spanish broadcaster Movistar Plus+ have sacked pundit German Burgos after he made a racist comment about Barcelona star Lamine Yamal live on air.
Yamal, 16, was one of the stars of Barcelona’s exhilarating 3-2 away win over Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night. But the team’s result and his performance were overshadowed by a comment made by Burgos before kick-off.
As the Barca youngster was shown doing kick-ups in the warm-up, one pundit said: "Look at the quality, look at the touches from Lamine Yamal." Former Atletico Madrid and Argentina goalkeeper Burgos then remarked: “If he doesn't do well, he ends up at a traffic light”, the insinuation being that he would be poor if it were not for football. Yamal was born in Spain to Moroccan and Equatorial Guinean parents.
Movistar Plus+ felt the negative impacts of Burgos’ words immediately, with Barca and PSG players refusing to speak to the TV channel post-match, having been informed about what was said. The broadcaster’s on-pitch reporter, Ricardo Sierra, said UEFA, Barca and PSG were “tremendously angry” about the comments.
Burgos, who was previously Diego Simeone’s assistant manager at Atleti, issued a grovelling apology in which he insisted his words were clumsy, not racist, but it hasn’t prevented his employer from sacking him. Movistar Plus+ said on Thursday they would “immediately cease their collaboration agreement” with Burgos and would “appropriate measures to ensure that such events do not recur”
“Movistar Plus+ condemns any kind of discrimination and will not allow this type of comment from any of the employees or collaborators linked to the platform,” it said. Burgos, 54, wrote a lengthy statement on Instagram earlier on Thursday.
Translated from Spanish, it read: “I make this statement reiterating my apologies for my words on yesterday's program. It was not my intention to harm Lamine Yamal, the people of FC Barcelona, the players, UEFA, or the Movistar Plus+ platform where I work. In making my comment I chose to make a joke about quality and flatter virtues, in no case was it about any ethnicity or social class.
“After so many years of being in football, I'm excited to see the young academy players. I mostly admire the amount of new talents that Barça is bringing out because I think that quality always wins in the end. I'm a pro academy coach and on every team I've been on I've worried about taking young people to train with the first team. I apologise to anyone who was offended by my comment. My intention was not to denounce Lamine Yamal, on the contrary.
"Football unites everything and everyone, which is why it is the best sport as it does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation. This is what I believe in!”