Turn the death of a footballer into a circus

Shock over the death of Jesús de Miguel, as a result of a very harsh tackle by the Andorra goalkeeper. The images are horrifying and have turned the clip viral. First problem: the exploitation of morbidity. Does the video have news value? Undoubtedly. But it is very different to show it as an element inserted into a general news story with an aseptic headline than to sell it with great fanfare, making the main draw the viewing of the unfortunate accident. "This was the play that ended in the death of Jesús de Miguel," cried a piece by La Sexta. Step right up, step right up and see. Or this yellow headline from El Español: "The tragedy of the deceased's wife: she watched the lethal kick to the chest from the stands with her one-year-old daughter."

I wrote accident, by the way, with full intention: the tackle deserves the maximum sporting sanction, but it can hardly be considered, penal-wise, a homicide as the various experts who have spoken out claim. Despite this, at this hour, the readers' comments sections are bursting with calls for Jesús Owono to be locked in prison. And a significant portion link the harshness of his defensive action to his skin tone: pure racism that runs rampant in these bowels of the digital press. There is also decontextualization. The video shows how, after the fateful collision, the goalkeeper leaves the pitch immediately without showing interest in the player's condition. Only in the full sequence can it be seen how Owono leaves because he has been shown the red card, but he returns immediately to the pitch upon seeing that De Miguel does not get up and that medical services are attending to him. We cannot do anything to bring the dead footballer back to life, but I wouldn't want to be in the goalkeeper's shoes either. Without avoiding the full weight of the regulations falling upon him, he must receive rigorous and fair media treatment, without yielding to populist visceral reactions.