Barça would prefer to stop whistling the Champions League anthem.

BarcelonaBerlin, June 6, 2015. While Barça won the Champions League final against Juventus, a UEFA employee counted Estelada flags among the Barça fans in the stadium. With the process in full swing, someone in Madrid had contacted the European body to inform it that the pro-independence flags were political banners and, according to the regulations, should be banned. A few days later UEFA fined Barça 30,000 eurosOn September 29 of that same year, Barça hosted Bayer Leverkusen. It was their first home game since the suspension and the public's response was clear: More Esteladas than ever were displayed, independence chants were made at the 17th minute and 14 seconds mark, and, above all, the Champions League anthem was played as a sign of protest.

The consequence was an additional fine of 40,000 euros. And a few weeks later, another fine of 150,000 euros would follow for a repeat offense. Tempers were running high. The concern wasn't the amount of the fine—of little importance compared to the club's revenue—but rather what it meant. UEFA had dug in, and Barça's board was between a rock and a hard place, aware that it couldn't ask the public to stop displaying them. The protests continued, and the club decided to turn to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as a last resort. But in September 2016, a change came. Aleksander Ceferin became UEFA president. Barça cleverly took advantage of this to end the conflict with a deal in the offices: the appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court was withdrawn in exchange for a change in the regulations. The sanctions ended, but the whistling has continued for the past ten years.

Barça believes whistling the Champions League anthem is "unfair" to the current UEFA system.

"It's become a tradition. In 2015, it made a lot of sense, but now it doesn't," say Barça's board members, who maintain that the whistling is "unfair." "The protest was understandable under the old UEFA system, which was very shabby. But with Ceferin's arrival, things changed," adds a person very close to Joan Laporta. This same source assures that the Barça president is "against" whistling, but makes it clear that neither he nor the club will make any move in this regard. "We are nobody to tell people what to do. Whistling or expressing disagreement, always with respect, is freedom of opinion. Whistling is respectable, but we don't agree with it," they insist from the noble offices of Camp Nou.

Since Barça and UEFA reached an agreement on the Esteladas in December 2016, the relationship between the two has been good. Except, of course, for the moment when Barça became one of the clubs promoting the Super League and began a lawsuit to stop UEFA from holding a monopoly on continental football. The reality is that the project hasn't gotten off the ground. –and it doesn't seem like it ever will–On the contrary. Laporta is increasingly close to Ceferin to ensure that some of the Super League proposals become part of a Champions League that in recent years has begun to revamp itself and distribute more millions among clubs.

From seeing ghosts to embracing UEFA

Today, relations between the two teams are "extraordinary," and those in the stands assure us that the whistles "do not affect" their daily routine, neither in the offices nor on the field. And that's because Barça has suffered some questionable refereeing decisions in recent seasons, such as those that ended with the club's elimination in the Champions League group stage in the 22-23 season – with Dutchman Pol van Boekel in charge of VAR in the matches at the Bayern and Inter Milan grounds. As much as they were vindictive in those days, with time they have overcome them and have stopped seeing ghosts.

Barça has approached UEFA because it needs its support on key issues such as the fair play financial and the return to Camp Nou to play in the Champions League. "Ceferin is the only one who is helping us from all over Europe," says one of the sources consulted. "He allowed us to play the first game away, when we didn't have a stadium to play in; he is willing to talk about returning to Camp Nou during the initial phase; he accepted the appeal against Flick's sanction, and he is going to reduce the fine from 60 to 15 million for not meeting the budget." It's all praise. That's why the Barça elite would like to see the Champions League anthem stopped being whistled. But they know perfectly well that the fans will continue to do so. And for a long time to come. Starting with this Tuesday's match against Olympiacos at Montjuïc.