The row over the Ceuta support shirts before Elche's clash with Real Madrid rumbles on. And now the Spanish press has revealed why Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté chose to hide the message printed on the shirts their team-mates wore before kick-off.
According to Spanish newspaper "El Mundo", the trio folded the shirts at the point of the slogan so it would not show, keen to avoid a backlash in Morocco given the political sensitivity between Morocco and Spain.
Real Madrid's players had received shirts bearing the phrase "Todos somos caballas. Ceuta y los Caballeros de la Mar", prepared by the Valencia businessmen's association as part of an initiative that also took in the Villarreal, Levante, Elche and Valencia matches.
Moroccan sensitivity
Mbappé, Vinícius and Konaté saw a political connotation in the message. So they preferred not to display it or to take a stance on an issue that cuts deep in Morocco.
Their decision came just one day after the storm sparked by Moroccan Abde Ezzalzouli, the Real Betis player, over his own involvement in the same initiative, the newspaper reported.
The Ezzalzouli crisis
During Villarreal's meeting with Real Betis, the Andalusian side's players joined the initiative and walked out wearing Ceuta support shirts. Among them was Ezzalzouli, the Morocco international.
Fierce criticism followed on social media from Moroccans, prompting him to delete his posts about the initiative before coming out to defend himself.
Ezzalzouli explained that the shirt carried "a social character in support of the residents and people of the city", denying the initiative had any political aim or carried any offence to Morocco.
Repercussions within Real Madrid
"El Mundo" reported that the fallout from the Ezzalzouli affair reached Real Madrid's dressing room. Brahim Díaz plays alongside the Betis man for Morocco, while Achraf Hakimi, the Morocco captain and one of Mbappé's close friends, is linked to the issue indirectly.
Real Madrid had agreed to Elche's initiative and handed the shirts to their players after the warm-up. Each man then decided for himself whether to wear the shirt and how to display it.
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