Barcelona asks to expel a football league team for advocating Francoism
Two Vox officials in the city are part of the team, which displayed Francoist symbology
BarcelonaThe Barcelona City Council has demanded this Friday that the manager of the Horta Velodrome prevent the participation in one of the 7-a-side football leagues held there of a team that promotes Francoism. The city's Councilor for Sports, David Escudé, has sent him a letter requesting the expulsion of the team Mingorrubio Balompié —in allusion to the cemetery where the dictator is buried—, which, as reported by SER, includes among its members two Vox officials in Barcelona and which displayed Francoist symbology on its crest.
The members of Vox who are part of the team are the provincial vice president in Barcelona, Juan Cremades, and the district councilor for Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Carles Oliva. Both wore a crest in which, beyond the team's name, one could read the name Bayern de los Caídos and it featured a 'victor' (Franco's personal anagram). The City Council's response comes after another team demanded that the league organizers have the team remove the Francoist symbology and after a group of lawyers brought the case to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
"Barcelona cannot allow its sports facilities to be used to provide cover for or normalize expressions that promote or exhibit symbology linked to a dictatorship," defends the letter that Escudé sent to the Velodrome's manager. In the missive, the councilor also argues that sport "cannot become a space for the exhibition or normalization of symbology associated with a dictatorship."